30 August 2023 Line

Seeking a diverse team will only make your operation stronger

Patrick Miller on Nis2

Patrick Miller, CEO and Owner of Ampere Industrial Security will join the Industrial Security Conference the 13-15 November where he will be part of the NIS2 panel discussion. The new NIS2 Directive aims to address emerging technologies, the modern threat landscape and fragmentation across Member States and to significantly increase cybersecurity capabilities throughout the EU. Hear more at the conference.

Before the conference in November read an interesting interview with Patrick here.

What is your background? And how do you work with industrial security on a daily basis?

Currently, I’m the CEO and owner of Ampere Industrial Security, an industrial security consulting firm based in Portland, OR USA. I’m also the US Coordinator for the Industrial Cybersecurity Center, or CCI (Centro de Ciberseguridad Industrial) based in Madrid, Spain and an instructor for the Cyber Information Security Leader (CISL) course through CSA CPH in Copenhagen, Denmark. I work with industrial organizations (electric, gas, water, manufacturing, mining, chemical) and their hardware and software vendors on cybersecurity, physical security, regulation and standards. We keep the industrial world ahead of their adversaries – and their auditors. Read more about Patrick Millers background here.

What do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges in connection with cyber- and industrial security?

One of the biggest opportunities and challenges (both) is the convergence of IT and OT. By this, I mean many of the industrial technologies are moving toward systems that look very much like IT systems. This is good and bad, in that it can give the OT world a wide new array of options and capabilities, but it comes with many of the IT risks. Both sides are still working on how to balance their operational practices to make this work well, but ultimately it will be a good thing for both. They can learn much from each other.

When looking forward just 5-10 years, what do you think will be different within security?

AI/ML/LLMs will disrupt everything. OT will be in the cloud. Everything will be digital (fewer analog systems by the day).

From your point of view, how do you think we get more diversity in the industry?

By pushing for it – everywhere. We can’t solve the future problems with the current level of diversity. We need all hands working on these problems. I actively seek smart people everywhere and intentionally seeking a diverse team will only make your operation stronger.

What are your own expectations for the conference? And which keynotes are you looking forward to hearing?

I always have high expectations for this event. It is a smart balance of technical and managerial content. I’m looking forward to the talks from Danielle Jablanski, Dan Ricci, Krystian Rykaczewski, Dr. Emma Stewart and Dieter Sarrazyn.

What will your keynote be about, and which learnings are you hoping the participants take with them?

I’m on a panel about the upcoming NIS2 regulation. As a former regulator in the US, this is very interesting to me. I hope to help attendees understand some of the ways to develop compliance programs that will also deliver the security value they expect from their expense in the compliance effort. In other words, how to achieve both with the same project, people, and funding.

Do you want to hear more about NIS2 from Patrick?

Join the conversation on NIS2 at the Industrial Security Conference 13-15 November and hear more from Patrick on the new directive. Read more about the conference and sign up here.