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The NMLEA, in partnership with the Maritime & Port Security ISAO, will participate as planners in the upcoming “Cyber Storm,” the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) biennial exercise series, designed to strengthen cyber preparedness in the public and private sectors. Securing cyber space is Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) Cybersecurity Division's top priority. An overview of the Cyber Storm series of exercises can be found here at: https://www.cisa.gov/cyber-storm-vi.
With the NMLEA and MPS-ISAO focused on the maritime sector, Cyber Storm participants perform the following activities:
- Examine organizations’ capability to prepare for, protect from, and respond to cyber attacks’ potential effects;
- Exercise strategic decision making and interagency coordination of incident response(s) in accordance with national level policy and procedures;
- Validate information sharing relationships and communications paths for collecting and disseminating cyber incident situational awareness, response and recovery information; and
- Examine means and processes through which to share sensitive information across boundaries and sectors without compromising proprietary or national security interests.
- Each Cyber Storm builds on lessons learned from previous real world incidents, ensuring that participants face more sophisticated and challenging exercises every two years.
“Cybersecurity in the maritime domain is critical, and yet, as the attack surface continues to grow exponentially with remote connections, apps and IoT devices within our maritime infrastructure, we are very slow to effectively protect this vital ‘seascape’” said NMLEA Executive Director, Mark DuPont. “And one of the ways you can find out where you are in your cybersecurity maturity level is by going through this exercise. If we truly want to improve our awareness of our capabilities and identify how we can improve, exercise is the answer.”
That is also why the NMLEA is actively engaged with the MPS-ISO, the National Maritime Intelligence Office, and the USCG in developing a pilot program to test some recognized best practices, at no cost to the participants.
Will you be a participant? Would you like to be a part of this exercise, or part of the Maritime Zero Trust Pilot that will be held in the next few months? Contact us at cyber@nmlea.org, or info@nmlea.org, and we can provide more information. We would love to have you onboard.
In the midst of this pandemic, we’ve talked about and assisted agencies in taking their training to the Digital environment (see the article “Transforming the Classroom into a Digital Journey”). And now organizations are looking at how they conduct preparedness exercises either during this time of “distancing”, or in the post-COVID-19 “normal” environment.
How about this consideration: What if we must react to another major issue during the response to this pandemic? Hurricane season is just around the corner. What happens if we experience a major earthquake or other severe storms that cause tornadoes or flooding? Are we prepared to address multiple issues at the same time from dispersed locations? What if there is a significant cyber attack, or man-made event that impacts our ports and waterways? How do you train, test, and evaluate your organization’s response capabilities for these types of considerations or preparedness goals?
Working in a remote environment, along with the prolonged duration of this pandemic, should not be looked upon as a barrier to continuing your training and exercise program. From Table Tops, to functional to full-scale exercises, what you need to start looking at is your organizational knowledge, resources, and leadership , and identify what you need to design, plan, execute and manage a virtual exercise.
As we all know, training and exercise activities vary in scale, scope, and complexity. And although all elements of an in person event cannot be fully replicated or realized in a virtual environment, much of what you want to achieve or test can be accomplished. Practice drills, facilitated discussions, workshops, tabletop exercises, rehearsals of concepts, and even certain aspects of a functional exercise can be very effectively adapted and successfully executed in a virtual setting, IF you have the right team helping you put this together. This is where the NMLEA can help you, using its exercise practitioners, virtual design experience, and digital training tools. In addition, the NMLEA Partnership with EPIC Ready Software can put all this together for you in a very streamlined, flexible, scalable and cost effective solution. Contact us at info@nmlea.org for more information on how you can “Go Viral” with your exercise plans.
Do you or your agency have someone they would like to nominate for the National Maritime Domain Awareness Excellence Award that the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO) will be presenting to a worthy recipient at the MSC-West in Seattle in September? This would be a Government or Industry partner or entity that you feel has contributed to maritime domain awareness. If so, please fill out the form attached here, with your nominee’s information, and return to Thomas Darby (thomas.a.darby@navy.mil) by 20 July 2020.
Award Background:
In support of the stated goals of the National Maritime Domain Awareness Plan (NMDAP), the National MDA Executive Steering Committee establishes an annual national level maritime domain awareness award program “MDA ESC Excellence Award” to recognize exemplary stakeholder members of the Global Maritime Community of Interest (GMCOI), whose accomplishments have made a significant contribution to improving the effective understanding of the maritime domain in the United States and its territories. This includes the US Federal interagency, US Intelligence Community (IC), state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies, international partners, academia, and maritime industry.
There are four categories for these awards:
- U.S. Federal Interagency and Intelligence Community Award
- Fusion Center Award
- Law Enforcement Award
- Special recognition
Make your nomination today, to recognize those partners that stand out among their peers, for the Excellence in Maritime Domain Awareness. It’s time to be recognized!
Mark R. DuPont
Executive Director
National/International Maritime Law Enforcement Academy
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