CS TechTalk
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
12:30-1:30 PM
FB 253 (Foundation Sciences Building)
“Three Trees and a Computer Bug: Implications for Grid Cybersecurity”
Eric Miller, Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer, MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator)
Description: On August 14, 2003, a few power lines brushed against some overgrown trees and shut down. Normally, the problem would have tripped an alarm in the control room of the utility company, but the alarm system failed due to a computer bug. The lack of situational awareness resulted in a series of cascading failures throughout eight U.S. states and southeastern Canada. This culminated in over 50 million people losing power for up to two days during the biggest blackout in North American history. The event contributed to at least 11 deaths and costs exceeded an estimated $6 billion.
As electricity demand surges, the importance of grid resilience and reliability at affordable levels is necessitating grid transformation thereby creating increasing complexity. Management of the grid now relies more heavily on software technology than in 2003. During this discussion we’ll talk about how one of the largest grid operators in the world is tackling the challenge of resilience in the growing threat environment of cybersecurity.
Bios: Eric Miller, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, leads the cybersecurity, physical security, unified incident response and facilities teams for Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) a critical infrastructure organization that 45 million people depend on to generate and transmit the right amount of electricity every minute of every day - reliably, dependably, and cost-effectively.
Prior to joining MISO, Eric held mission critical technology and cybersecurity leadership roles within healthcare, manufacturing, and as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army. As an open-source software author he has led globally used projects focused on network optimization and management. He currently serves as a board member at the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) and on the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Reliability and Security Technical Committee (RSTC), organizations that both strive to efficiently mitigate risks to the reliability of the bulk electric system.
Eric also holds multiple cybersecurity certifications including being a Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with advanced specialties in architecture as an Information Systems Security Architecture Professional (ISSAP) and engineering as an Information Systems Security Engineering Professional (ISSEP).
He has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Systems Engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Light refreshments will be served