By Bill Knous, BCP Executive Director, Projects
“WOW”! It’s amazing what teamwork can produce! The BCP corporate team pulled off another successful conference support effort. BCP sponsored a booth at this year’s Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Cyber Security Implementation Workshop, March 25-27, 2019 in Boston. Bill Knous and Henry Walters manned the BCP booth during the conference and were able to meet with new prospective clients, as well as nurture existing relationships with current clients. Bill and Henry had the easy part, but they were successful because of the great support of our corporate team.
The NEI Cyber Workshop is about building industry relationships between the NRC and Nuclear Power Plant operators around the implementation of their Cyber Security programs. Implementation of the Nuclear Cyber Security Program was complete on December, 31 2017. Since that time the NRC has been performing their inspections. There have been many issues arise during these inspections. Working together on these issues and challenges allows all stakeholders to better understand the different perspectives and jointly come up with solutions. NEI and the Nuclear Industry are taking steps to fundamentally change their Cyber Security Programs to properly address the concerns around the current scope of the identified Critical Systems and consequently the Critical Digital Asset (CDA) classifications. Now that the NRC is in mid-stream of their inspections of the Utility Cyber programs, both sides have a better idea of the others concerns. The Industry and the NRC will begin to look at the scope of the NRC regulation and look for ways to be more effective in CDA classification and apply Security Controls appropriately.
Several organizations such as ERPI, ANS, and NEI are continuously working with the NRC and the Utilities looking for ways to streamline the Cyber Security Program process and scope. There are many opportunities for these organizations, the NRC and utility representatives to form a task force to develop solutions to any issue or concern raised. The NEI conference is just one of the platforms used to disseminate the task forces recommended solutions to the nuclear industry.
Sponsoring the NEI Cyber Security conference has been a great opportunity for BCP. The NEI has been very supportive allowing the industry vendors and service providers like BCP to help build these relationships by being at the table and a part of the discussions. BCP looks forward to supporting the NEI Cyber conferences in the future and greatly appreciates the help we received.
Thanks again to the BCP support team as well as everyone who participated in the NEI Cyber Workshop!
Henry Walters, BCP Cyber Security SME and Bill Knous, BCP Executive Director Projects represent BCP at the conference.
Bill and Henry engaging with utilities and vendors alike learning about our unique approaches to cyber security.