DOE’s National Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) Strategy turned a game-changing concept into a strategic roadmap. Two years later, CESER has matured CIE into an industry-led practice that is beginning to change how we design energy infrastructure—now and into the future.
Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response
November 22, 2024
minute read time
Lili Colon
Lili Colon is the Principal Deputy Director (PDD) for CESER, providing leadership across the Office to optimize operations and build capacity, to enable the organization to achieve its mission and realize its vision of a more secure, reliable, and resilient energy sector for the American people.
Colon brings a wealth of expertise to CESER, having most recently served as the Deputy Associate Director for the Integrated Operations Division within the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Colon also served as the Chief for Strategic Planning and Resource Management for the Cybersecurity Division within CISA. In this extensive role, she was responsible for advancing and managing cybersecurity strategy, policy, and governance, while concurrently leading the successful execution of a $1.2 billion annual budget to achieve national cybersecurity objectives.
Colon’s portfolio extends beyond CISA and cybersecurity, as she also served as the Deputy Federal Security Director for the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). Overseeing five airports in Florida, including the Orlando International Airport, Colon led a workforce of over 1,700 employees and a budget of $8.9M and was responsible for security and operational activities requiring diverse capabilities. From understanding and mitigating risks from emerging technologies, to developing and maintaining critical public/private partnerships needed to ensure the safety and security of airport operations, Colon leveraged her deeply rooted knowledge of federal budget and acquisition management, cybersecurity and risk mitigation, and stakeholder engagement to successfully accomplish her duties during her tenure.
As Chief of Staff for the Enhanced Shared Situational Awareness - a presidential initiative, Colon led the effort to increase the speed and quality of cyber information sharing through the development of critical partnerships, implementation of communication strategies, and operational and capacity-building best practices.
Colon earned a Master’s degree in Information Security Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and holds a B.S. from Syracuse University in Information Management and Technology. She is also an alum of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Fellows program, and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus teaching courses in Business Management, Cybersecurity, and Government Policy.
As PDD Colon will prioritize all efforts – both administratively and operationally – required to increase the resilience of our nation’s critical infrastructure and reduce exposure to cyber risks. Her past work, successes, and critical partnerships across the interagency and private sector uniquely position her to foster collective action, build coalitions, and ensure a threat-informed and data-driven approach to securing the U.S. energy sector through the dynamic CESER mission.
Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) leverages engineers and engineering design to provide deterministic controls that reduce the damage potential of a cyber attack. CIE offers a framework to integrate engineering controls that reduce or mitigate the impact of cyber threats into any physical system used in critical infrastructure, energy or otherwise. CIE guides engineers to consider the worst-case scenarios of cyber attacks on their designs, and allows for engineering teams and cybersecurity teams to collectively design solutions that can mitigate what an adversary could do.
The Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) has worked with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to integrate CIE into the U.S. energy infrastructure, acting on the approaches outlined in DOE’s 2022 National Cyber-Informed Engineering Strategy.
Over the past two years, CESER has transitioned CIE from a strategic approach to an industry-led practice, with a growing library of resources and tools that are influencing infrastructure design, engineering education, and standards implementation.
Influencing Energy Infrastructure Projects
CESER’s CIE program published an extensive CIE Implementation Guide to guide engineers through questions that help employ CIE principles into systems across engineering lifecycles. The Implementation Guide was also developed into a web-based CIE Analysis Tool, and the program is preparing to release a companion guide focused on CIE case studies for a number of different generation technologies.
Now, the CIE program is working alongside five utility partners (and counting!) to implement CIE into energy infrastructure projects from microgrids to substations. Researchers worked with a cooperative utility to implement cyber-informed engineering protections into dozens of new microgrid installations. Because each installation had different cyber risks and opportunities, the team built a CIE Microgrid Analysis Tool (CIEMAT) that helps utilities get to CIE decisions faster when designing microgrids.
CIE program partners in utilities and system design and engineering firms are implementing these design principles and bringing real-world feedback and case studies into CIE research through the CIE Community of Practice.
Building an International Community of Practitioners
CESER built a thriving CIE Community of Practice with 305 members from 164 organizations who are working with the program to build CIE concepts into guidance and tools, integrate CIE into university-level engineering programs, and align CIE with industry standards. This ensures that CIE resources are directly informed by the engineers, manufacturers, utilities, researchers, universities, and standards organizations who will be using them.
Members guide resource development through three monthly Working Groups (Standards, Education, and Implementation). Email [email protected] to join the Community of Practice and participate in a working group.
CIE concepts have also been presented at 43 industry events in the last year, including in-depth CIE workshops that challenged participants to apply CIE concepts to critical infrastructure designs, including microgrids, substations, advanced distribution management systems, and water booster pump stations.
Partnering with Standards Bodies to Align and Integrate CIE
The CIE program is actively working with standards organization to examine how to align CIE strategies with existing standards and further integrate CIE concepts into standards over time:
- ISA 99 WG14 is building CIE concepts into an ISA/IEC 62443 Security Profile for Energy OT Control Systems.
- CIE is referenced in IEC TR 63486 ED1 on cyber risk management for nuclear instrumentation and control.
- The American Water Works Association identified CIE as the resource to lead long-term sustainment & culture change for high cyber maturity.
- CIE is included in the upcoming IEEE Power & Energy Society Roadmap, fostering ongoing dialogue and collaboration.
Keep an eye on this space to learn more about CIE resources and successes as CESER continues driving CIE research and development forward.