LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY DIRECTOR COMMENTS ON SECURING THE GRID

FROM: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Los Alamos Director Echoes Cyber Concerns
Securing the grid will be key for energy security going forward

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.,May 21, 2013—Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan told a gathering of energy executives today that securing the electrical grid is a major concern now and it’s only becoming more serious.

"If you look back at the last year, there were several hundred attacks on critical infrastructure," McMillan said, addressing attendees at the Deloitte Energy Conference near Washington, DC. "More than 40% of those attacks were on the energy sector."

Resilience and reliability of the electrical grid have become key energy security concerns at the Laboratory and are important focus areas in global security. Experience with massive amounts of data, complex systems and security technology involved in nuclear weapons research are now providing insights for grid security, McMillan said.

"In the time it takes me to say this sentence, the external firewalls of Los Alamos will be challenged hundreds of times by adversaries. Our systems, and yours, are very attractive." McMillan said. "But encrypting control signals on the grid is particularly challenging because any encryption scheme must be able to meet competing standards for very rapid response and high security."

McMillan showed a Los Alamos device called a QKarD that uses principles of quantum cryptography to send secure signals at the speed of light. Single photons are used to produce secure random numbers between users, and these random numbers are then used to authenticate and encrypt the grid control data. QKarD was successfully tested recently at the University of Illinois to send signals between grid components separated by more than 12 miles of optical fiber.

Securing grid control systems with quantum cryptography would make them far less vulnerable to those attempting to interfere with signals between generators, control centers and substations.

For more information on QKarD:
LANL Developing Quantum Encryption to Secure Communications Networks (Power Magazine, May 20, 2013
Quantum cryptography put to work for electric grid security (Los Alamos National Laboratory news release February 2013)
The work has led to 27 U.S. and foreign patent applications and the Lab’s Technology Transfer Division is receiving inquiries from companies within the electric-grid control industry.

Photo information: 1. Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan (right), with, from left, Anthony Cugini of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Thom Mason of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Tomas Diaz de la Rubia of Deloitte Consulting LLP. 2. Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan displays a QKarD, a Los Alamos device that uses quantum cryptography to transmit secure signals between sender and receiver.

U.S-JAPAN AND THE CYBER DIALOGUE.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Joint Statement on U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 10, 2013

The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and the Government of Japan on the occasion of the first U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue.

Begin Text:

The Governments of the United States and Japan held the first U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue in Tokyo on May 9-10, 2013.

The U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue, initiated at the Presidential-Prime Ministerial level, reflects our nations' broad engagement and long-standing cooperation on important bilateral and global issues. The Cyber Dialogue is a consultation for exchanging cyber threat information, aligning international cyber policies, comparing national cyber strategies, cooperating on planning and efforts to protect critical infrastructure, and discussing the cooperation on cyber areas in national defense and security policy.

The U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue deepened bilateral cooperation on a wide range of cyber issues and strengthened the U.S.-Japan Alliance by:
Exchanging information on cyber issues of mutual concern and discussing possible cooperative measures.
Affirming common objectives in international cyber fora, especially the application of norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace.
Supporting the development of practical confidence-building measures and the implementation of national whole-of-government cyber strategies in an effort to reduce risk in cyberspace.
Confirming support for the preservation of openness and interoperability enhanced by the multi-stakeholder system of Internet governance.
Coordinating cooperation on cyber capacity-building efforts in third countries.
Identifying actions governments and private sector entities can take to secure critical infrastructure.
Addressing the increasing role of cyber defense in national defense and security strategies and discussing new areas of bilateral cyber defense cooperation.
The U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue was hosted by Japan’s Ambassador in charge of Cyber Policy Osamu Imai and included a wide range of senior officials from the Government of Japan, including from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Cabinet Secretariat (National Security Affairs and Crisis Management); the National Information Security Center; Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office; the National Police Agency; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Defense; and from the METI-affiliated Information-technology Promotion Agency. The U.S. Secretary of State’s Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Christopher Painter, led the U.S. government interagency delegation, which included representatives from the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense.

Ambassador Imai and Coordinator Painter decided to hold the second U.S.-Japan Cyber Dialogue in Washington during the fourth quarter of 2013.