Blog: JCDC Builds Foundation for Pipelines Cyber Defense Planning Effort

Summary:

The #protect2024Secure Our WorldShields Up report highlights the importance of oil and natural gas (ONG) subsector to national security and prosperity. To address cyber threats, the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) brought together ONG organizations, industrial control systems (ICS) vendors, and government agencies to develop the 2023 JCDC Pipelines Cyber Defense Planning Effort.

This effort resulted in the creation of the ONG Pipelines Reference Architecture (PRA), a voluntary model to guide ONG organizations in segmenting their networks, mitigating intrusion campaigns, and ensuring network security. The PRA is a joint industry effort that showcases the interplay between network segmentation, multi-factor authentication, external dependencies, and critical field devices.

Participating organizations commended the JCDC for its efforts, stating that the collaboration led to the development of a quality product that can be used by ONG operators and vendors to improve network security.