The Cyber Informed Safety System
Kenneth Titlestad
S4x24 - ICS Security Conference · Day 3 · Stage 2
In an era where critical infrastructure faces escalating cyber threats, Kenneth Titlestad’s S4x24 talk, "The Cyber Informed Safety System," presents a compelling argument for re-evaluating how operational technology (OT) environments prioritize and manage safety in the face of cyber-attacks. Titlestad challenges the conventional binary approach to system failures – where systems either operate perfectly or shut down completely – by advocating for more granular, "safer modes" inspired by the aviation industry and consumer automotive systems. The core of his proposal is to extend the established principles of **Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS)** to create a new paradigm: a **Cyber-Informed Safety System**.
AI review
Titlestad's "The Cyber Informed Safety System" is a critical and highly impactful re-evaluation of operational technology (OT) safety in the face of sophisticated cyber threats. By extending the established Safety Instrumented System (SIS) model to create a Cyber-Informed Safety System (CISS) and advocating for granular 'safer modes' inspired by aviation, he presents a novel and essential framework for resilient critical infrastructure. This isn't just theory; it's a blueprint for engineering systems that can intelligently degrade and maintain critical functions under duress, forcing a…