The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) are launching the CIE Back-to-School Weekly series to help energy professionals and engineers understand and apply the 12 foundational principles of Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE).
Announced Tuesday, the initiative will publish new content each week through a learning hub, examining one principle at a time and explaining how the principles build on one another. The program aims to advance the integration of cybersecurity into infrastructure engineering and design, complementing traditional reactive cyber measures with engineered controls that use engineering and physics to mitigate cyber risks and eliminate catastrophic consequences from cyber-enabled attacks.
Each weekly module will include an overview of the featured principle, a case study demonstrating its application and key questions engineers can use to begin applying the principle to their organizations’ energy systems.
The learning hub opens with Principle 1, Consequence-Focused Design. CESER and INL also support CIE adoption through an implementation guide that helps engineers navigate questions for applying the principles and a web-based CIE Analysis Tool for tracking responses. A new CIE Handbook, intended to provide a simplified starting point for adopting the approach and connect users with related resources and research, will be released as the series’ capstone.
The series offers an in-depth look at each of CIE’s 12 foundational principles. Each week, new content will be added to the new CIE learning hub, giving energy professionals and engineers the opportunity to explore one principle at a time, progressively build understanding, and see how the principles build on one another.
The learning hub will provide a principle overview, a case study to demonstrate application, and key questions that engineers can use to begin applying the principle to their organization’s energy systems. Explore the Learning Hub today to learn about Principle 1 (Consequence-Focused Design), and come back weekly to keep building CIE knowledge.
CESER partners with INL to build tools and resources that support CIE adoption, including a CIE Implementation Guide to navigate engineers through questions that apply CIE principles, and a web-based CIE Analysis Tool that can track responses to those questions. More tools, workbooks, and resources are available on INL’s CIE knowledge hub.
As a capstone to the CIE Back-to-School Weekly Series, CESER and INL will release the CIE Handbook, a new resource that offers a simplified starting point to CIE adoption and connects users to CIE resources and research.
Earlier this month, the CESER announced plans to fund not-for-profit organizations that aim to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of electric cooperative, municipal, and small investor-owned utilities. The $100 million funding opportunity is available through CESER’s Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity (RMUC) Advanced Cybersecurity Technical Assistance (TA) Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) and requires applicants to deliver cybersecurity technical assistance, technologies, services, threat information sharing, and other support to eligible electric utilities.
