(Oil & Gas 360) – With strategic minerals rising fast on the list of geopolitical risks given the Trump administration’s talk of Canada, Greenland, and Ukraine in his first month in office, miners worldwide are collaborating as never before to build and share security and operational resilience.
According to officials at the Colorado Mining Association’s 127th National Western Mining Conference in Denver, February 23-26, that need is more pronounced than ever. The conference is in conjunction with the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.
The need for the industry-wide effort started in Canada in 2007 when eight mining companies were all extorted in separate instances but by similar means. Those companies established the Mining and Metals Information Sharing Analysis Center to collectively identify, protect, and defend sensitive data, technology, and systems.
Rob Labbe, CEO of the Mining and Metals Information Sharing and Analysis Center in Calgary, Alberta (MMISAC), noted that his group supports mining operations across forty countries to share tactics to thwart and recover from cyber espionage. He said the group shares cyber security information among members that could impact safety, environmental protection, and operational productivity.
In addition to the threats to supplying and operating a mining company, he said the group also helps with rapid response communications, citing instances where attackers have released news of their extortion intentions fifteen minutes before a company’s earnings call. Last year, his group reported twenty-seven threats, with no arrests.
Labbe said MMISAC could help companies get information out to critical audiences before the shock value sought by malefactors, adding that the number of reported threats doubles annually, with unreported threats some twenty times that number.
He said that the extortion of money was the most prevalent reason for the attacks. Still, growing attacks from state actors looking to weaken another’s national security or supply chains looking to slow a competing country’s efforts are emerging more frequently.
Another goal of the MMISAC is to share best management practices for environmental mitigation, especially for less-developed countries.
He said Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) are prevalent throughout many of the world’s industries, including one in the United States for oil and gas. For more information, mmisac.org.
By Jim Felton for oilandgas360.com
