Critical infrastructure, like power grids, water supply systems, transportation networks, and healthcare facilities, is essential for the functioning of our nation. Cyberattacks on these systems can disrupt daily life, compromise national security, and lead to significant economic and social consequences. Notwithstanding the immediate localized physical damage from dangerously high voltages, explosive gas or massive volumes of water, a successful critical infrastructure cyberattack could have longer-term impact across an area as large as a city, county, state or region.
To optimize production and meet business demand, critical infrastructure providers often maintain information systems that integrate information technology (IT) with operational technology (OT). Cybersecurity risk of these systems often results in tremendous financial impact and the implicit damage is hard to quantify. While the protection of their existing IT space is already challenging enough, cyber-defenders must now also grapple with the unfamiliar landscape of OT, whose systems and personnel typically have a fraction of the cybersecurity preparedness of their IT counterparts. Therefore, the theme of NECCDC 2024 is “Critical Controls, Protecting our Infrastructure”. Each Blue Team will be charged with safeguarding their familiar IT environment along with an interconnected industrial control system. A compromise in this environment can quickly become kinetic in a bad way, thus it is the responsibility of the competitors this season to mitigate the risk of this highly escalating scenario.
Please Save the dates for NECCDC 2024:
Qualifiers: Saturday Feb 03, 2024
Regionals: Saturday - Monday March 23-25 2024