AEC 2023 Event Report

Cybersecurity Track

Date

April 5 & 6, 2023

Time

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Location

Edmonton Expo Centre, Conference Rooms

Track Overview

“If I were to go back three years and try to predict where the world would be today, I think the only thing I’d get right is that I would be three years older.”

It’s been similar for the cybersecurity world, trying to predict the best product for the environment, and the supplier that will survive the onerous road to become a staple. Funny enough, technology is only a small fraction of a comprehensive cybersecurity program. The larger parts are people and processes. 

Cybersecurity has to be a team effort that includes everyone – top down, bottom up – in your organization. It’s about… making small changes in our normal routines to keep our systems protected and operating.  It’s about… using our existing process and in-house expertise to help understand risks.  It’s about… doing more with less and leveraging all available resources and experts.  

This year’s Cybersecurity Track will bring to light some of the possibilities there are for the people, process and technology framework.

Register

The identical sessions run on each day in all tracks. Our transferrable conference pass allows attendees to attend one track on Day 1/April 5 and a different track on Day 2/April 6 – or – the option to transfer their pass to someone else on the day they are not planning to attend. 
 

The cost to attend the conference is $600/ISA Member and $900/Non ISA Member. To become an ISA Member click here. A professional development hours (PDH) certificate will be available to all attendees post event.

Please click the “Register Here!” button (bottom of your screen), choose the “Expo & Conference” registration option, and follow the prompts. 

Track Lineup

Session 1

9:00 - 10:00

Adventures in Building an OT Cybersecurity Framework

This session will highlight some experiences in Operational Technology[OT] cybersecurity over the past decade starting with describing a framework and then exploring implementation of standards, different types of audits, IT/OT convergence, the evolution of cybersecurity tools, measuring cybersecurity maturity and MSSP strategies. Join Mark for this fast paced overview as he shares his adventures in this important and ever evolving discipline.

Mark Brosseau
Senior Manager Plants Control & Automation, EPCOR

Session 2

10:30 - 11:30

Two for One,The Great Monetization of C2 Communication

Paul Smith, ICS Cybersecurity Specialist, SCADAfence
Mark Matthews, Security Principal, Secureworks

Session 3

1:30 - 2:30

Are You Next? Transforming Cyber Threat Assessments With A Process Safety Framework

A Forbes review states that “80% of critical infrastructure organizations experienced a ransomware attack in the last year, with an equal number reporting that their security budgets have risen since 2020…” Cyber security is generally viewed as protection of your IT and OT systems; however, these systems also control and integrate into infrastructure/plant equipment and instrumentation. Compromising your IT/OT is not simply a loss of data or inability to access data, but also impacts your infrastructure/plant equipment and instrumentation, potentially causing catastrophic consequences to critical services.

How affected are you; are you next?

In this presentation, we will demonstrate how Cyber Security threats are currently assessed, and how an existing framework from the Process Safety industry can be included in Cyber Security risk assessments, to take a more critical view of plant infrastructure impacts.

Kim Alcorn & James Laszlo
Process Safety Engineers, EPCOR

Session 4

3:00 - 4:00

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Services for Critical Infrastructure

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security has a mandate to provide cyber defence not only to the Government of Canada, but also to Canadian critical infrastructure partners. The CCCS maintains a number of products and services that are freely available to Canadian critical infrastructure. This talk will provide an overview of the CCCS, our mandate and legislation, an overview of the products and services we provide, and how to subscribe to these services.

Jean-Pierre (J-P) Sturgeon
Manager, Critical Infrastructure Partnerships, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security

AEC 2025?

Hello & thanks for stopping by.

We are excited for AEC 2025 too! Our website will be updated for this event closer to…

In the meantime:

The AEC Team