"Gas Industry Says 'Trust Us' On Tracking Cyberthreats"

"At the end of a Senate hearing last month, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) challenged Dave McCurdy, president of the American Gas Association, to say how Congress and the public can be confident about the cybersecurity defenses of the nation's natural gas infrastructure when no one is keeping score.

'We still don't have the metrics needed to measure the relative cybersecurity of our pipeline systems,' Cantwell said, citing assessments by the Government Accountability Office.

The Transportation Security Administration and other agencies under the Department of Homeland Security were directed by the Obama administration in October 2014 to create those metrics, so the government can measure the strength of its defense against efforts to sabotage the United States' critical infrastructure. For its part, TSA is responsible for overseeing the security of more than 300,000 miles of natural gas pipelines.

In February, GAO told Congress that the agencies under DHS had not provided those metrics."

Peter Behr, Blake Sobczak, and Hannah Northey report for EnergyWire May 26, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Cyber Raises Threat Against America's Energy Backbone" (EnergyWire)

"Slim TSA Cyber Staff Takes On Rising Pipeline Threat" (EnergyWire)