Who would have thought that a visit to Georgia’s first robotic dairy would turn into a lesson in Cyber Risk Assessment, BIA, BCP, Security Controls, and Operations Planning. Thanks to Steve Weldon, GCC/SRNL Cyber Program Director and “Farmer Mark” Rodgers, third generation dairy farm owner.
After the trip, I asked my DOE sponsored SRESFS interns how they liked the tour and I expected to hear about how cute the baby calf was, and how well organized the workflow was and how they wish they could have tried some of the raw milk. And how much fun they had (which was all true).
To my amazement, they took the entire tour with their cyber security hats on, taking mental notes applying the concepts we learned in the classroom, and made the dozens of observations, which demonstrates that they are already learning to think like mature cyber analysts.
I was amazed to hear comments about safety, recognition of lack of rain, disease, angry bulls, and health regulations as risks that need to be assessed and addressed. The students quizzed the owners how they determined how long they can be down and what to be doing while they’re down to maintain the milk flow. (MTD, RTO and WRT)
The students also realized for the first time that there are numerous components to a continuity plan. You have one for the computers, you have one for the health of the animals, you have one for the lack of rain and such.
Finally, we found it very curious that they said they have more data than they know what to do with and have alarms triggering every 4 and 5 minutes and do not have a way to filter them to identify the important ones that need immediate attention. Can you spell SIEM?
This was a wonderful opportunity of a lifetime. I highly recommend it for everyone. Science, cyber, engineering, environmental science, and more.
