Security Basics: Social Engineering

(This article was originally published on the Findings From the Field blog.) Miles McQueen of the University of Idaho & Idaho National Laboratories had an interesting presentation in the Security track at the last ARC World Forum in Orlando some time ago. He talked about work INL had done with their own people to increase awareness of social engineering attacks. He cited pan-cultural research results about people lying as background. The research showed how many people across many cultures believed that the following traits indicated someone was lying:

CIP-002-4 “Bright Line” Secures 163 Plants, Max

(This article was originally published on the Findings From the Field blog.) In the 2009 statistics, the latest available, NERC tracked some 10,500 generators with a nameplate capacity of 0.1 MW or higher, at about 5700 sites. The new NERC CIP-002 version 4 "bright line" rule says NERC-CIP applies to only those generating sites with "an aggregate highest rated net Real Power capability of the preceding 12 months equal to or exceeding 1500 MW in a single Interconnection." How many locations/plants is that? According to NERC, only 163 sites have a nameplate generating capability of 1500 MW or greater, and there is no word yet on how many of those plants are exempt because they feed less than 1500 MW into any one interconnection.