About the speaker:

Dr. Linton Wells II brings more than twenty years of civilian leadership experience in national security affairs. He is particularly familiar with cybersecurity issues, networked capabilities, and the uses of technology, media and data in defense environments, having served as acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration (ASD NII) and Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Officer (CIO). Other senior positions have been related to Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I), and the interface between policy and technology.

As Assistant Secretary (acting) and DoD CIO he oversaw the Defense Department’s $30 billion budget for information technology and related areas and was responsible for enhancing DoD’s networked capabilities and support structures.

His present work includes cross-domain synergy – the convergence of cyber, electromagnetic warfare and space; building resilience to national and man-made disasters; critical infrastructure protection; smart cities; and big data analytics.

Synopsis:

The pace of technological change and the integration of cyber and physical infrastructures in “smart cities” are making it harder for traditional security approaches to protect critical infrastructures from cyber attacks. A smart city gathers data from myriad sensors in roadways, power grids, water and wastewater systems, and buildings, among others; shares that data via smart grids; and integrates analysis to improve services, reduce costs and engage citizens more effectively.

However, it is hard for cities to provide consistent long term policy guidance in the face of rapidly changing technology, while budget pressures and bureaucratic inertia complicate the planning and executing of effective infrastructure protection plans. Cross-cutting vulnerabilities among infrastructures compound the risk, for example, many services depend on power.  Moreover, the industrial control systems that govern most infrastructures are notoriously insecure, and the exploding “Cloud of Everything” (broader than the IoT—Internet of Things) will dramatically increase the society-wide cyber “attack surface”.

Innovative approaches can mitigate these risks. Security architectures with strong border control points and segregated enclaves can help, as can cyber-secure micro-grid architectures. Extensively instrumenting operational components of key infrastructures and using big data analytics to detect anomalous behavior in near-real time can be powerful tools.  However, technology alone is not enough (sociology always trumps technology)—effective approaches will have to integrate people, organizations, processes and technology.

Contacts

For invitation enquiries please contact:-

Ms Sobana Bala
Administrative Officer
Tel: (65) 6790-6487
Fax: (65) 6792-8701
E-mail: [email protected]