Industrial Cybersecurity Faculty Member Offers Insight on Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack

In the wake of the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, which disrupted gasoline distribution across the Eastern United States, ISU cybersecurity instructor Sean McBride said Idaho State University has a unique program to prevent such occurrences. 

“The Colonial Pipeline event is a reminder of the importance of educational programs to ensure the cybersecurity of critical infrastructures,” said McBride, who, before joining ISU, spent 10 years as an intelligence analyst studying such attacks. “Part of the reason behind events like this is that professionals who operate industrial control systems have not received proper education and training around cybersecurity. That is to say that computers and industrial systems have been two entirely different disciplines. Our industrial cybersecurity program changes that.” 

Idaho State has an impressive history of leadership in cybersecurity education. The first federal training standards for cybersecurity professionals were developed in ISU’s Simplot Decision Support Center in the early 2000s. Idaho State was one of the first five schools in the country the federal government designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in the field. ISU’s NIATEC program, from which McBride is also a graduate, has placed more than 70 masters-level graduates in the federal government.

In 2015 ISU established the nation’s first Industrial Cybersecurity degree program -- making it one of only two schools in the country which the National Security Agency has recognized as specializing in securing the systems that control pipelines, manufacturing, and the electric grid. 

Enrollment in the Industrial Cybersecurity program grew from three students in 2016 to 30 in 2020. Program graduates have gone to employers such as the Idaho National laboratory, who helped start the program, West Yost associates, which specializes in water systems, and Simplot.

In 2020 ISU added a unique Bachelor of Applied Science degree in cyber-physical systems. The degree takes students from diverse backgrounds, such as Information Technology Systems, Instrumentation Engineering Technology, Nuclear Operations Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, and infuses them with key cybersecurity competencies.

“The technological environment is evolving,” McBride said. “That means that the systems controlling pipelines are no longer isolated from larger networks. The same can be said for the electric grid, automobiles, and even the health care industry. We can expect additional incidents like this, we will keep producing professionals to meet the need.”