The world needs CIE. CIE needs you.
The new Level Zero OT Cyber Security 2025 Conference is where cybersecurity joins engineering. All the CIE gurus are coming. But a couple of dozen gurus can't save the world. The world needs CIE. CIE needs you.
Andrew Ginter
Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) is the biggest change in twenty years in how we understand OT security. CIE teaches us to ask different questions:
- What is the most serious credible consequence that we must defeat with a high degree of confidence? Not: “What is the most frequent, most annoying consequence that will distract us and suck up our security budget?”
- How can we prevent these consequences deterministically? Not: “How can we be a little more secure in hopes of preventing disaster?” Hope is not what we expect of engineers designing bridges, nor those designing critical automation systems.
- What do enterprise security teams need to know to be able to cooperate with engineering teams? Eg: “How likely is that batch of security updates to kill anyone?”
- What do engineering teams need to know before they demand dramatically stronger security? Eg: “This is how that credible attack will almost certainly defeat our current defenses.”
- How can we design automation to “power through” cyber attacks with only acceptable consequences? Eg: improved monitoring, reduced functionality fallbacks, dependency analysis, and rapid recovery for reliability-critical IT assets.
The 2025 Level Zero OT Cyber Security Conference
The new Level Zero OT Cyber Security 2025 Conference is where cybersecurity joins engineering and will really be discussing all these questions and more for the first time. The world’s experts at the intersection of cybersecurity and engineering (CIE) will come together to share insights, compare notes, and hear about the latest work that we are all doing.
I encourage everyone active in this space to submit the work you are doing to the call for speakers, and try to attend the event on March 31st – April 2nd in Atlanta.
this is the OT security event we’ll talk about for the next decade
The Speakers
Here are my favorites among the now announced speakers and (paraphrased) topics:
- What is CIE? – straight from INL’s principle CIE investigator for process automation Benjamin Lampe / INL.
- Using CIE to design a water system booster pump – Edward Huang & Alyssa McMinemon / Auburn U.
- Positioning cybersecurity with a business focus – Blake Gilson & Madeline Dixon / ExxonMobil,
- Applying Zero Trust to OT – Why Bother? (that one verbatim, not paraphrased) – Daryl Haegley / USAF.
- Cyber resilience in weapons systems – Marouane Balmakhtar / Pentagon
- Infrastructure Susceptibility Analysis framework – Sarah Freeman / Mitre (and co-author of INL’s Consequence-Driven, Cyber-Informed Engineering book)
- Lessons from the 70-sector protacted cyber conflict exercise – Mark Bristow / Mitre
- Why engineers are better at OT security – Markus Braendle / CambiOS
Much more is on the Level Zero website and even more is coming. And yes, I will also be speaking, testing concepts for my 2026 book – CIE for the Safety-Critical Cloud.
This first Level Zero will highlight innovation, emphasize critical insights, socialize what works, and connect people to cooperate.
I’ve said it before – this is the OT security event we’ll talk about for the next decade.
The date is coming fast, so book the time (Mar 31 – Apr 2), book the flights (Atlanta is the world’s biggest, easiest-to-get-to airport) and join us.
CIE gurus are coming.
But a couple of dozen gurus can’t save the world.
The world needs CIE. CIE needs you.
About the author
Andrew Ginter
FAQs About The Level Zero Conference 2025
What Is the Level Zero OT Cyber Security 2025 Conference
The new Level Zero OT Cyber Security 2025 Conference is where the world’s experts at the intersection of cybersecurity and engineering will come together to share insights, compare notes, and hear about the latest work that we are all doing.
When and where will the conference take place?
March 31st – April 2nd in Atlanta.
The date is coming fast, so book the time, book the flights (Atlanta is the world’s biggest, easiest-to-get-to airport), and join us.
How much is it?
Tickets are $749. All details and registration can be found here: https://levelzeroconference.com/speakers-and-topics/. We hope to see you there!
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