Last week, the Coast Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy, Rear Admiral Paul Thomas, met with the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Norman Bay, to discuss collaboration on voluntary cyber reviews for MTSA-regulated liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.

The voluntary Cyber Architecture Reviews are intended to be a collaborative, non-regulatory, approach that promotes secure and resilient infrastructure through the sharing of information and best practices.

The Coast Guard has been working with FERC’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Security (OEIS). OEIS has conducted over 21 voluntary Cyber Architecture Reviews to date for the energy sector, and hopes to support LNG terminals by offering a no-cost voluntary cyber review.

“We are excited for the chance to continue our great relationship with FERC,” said Thomas. “Their cyber architecture review provides a great opportunity for industry to assess and strengthen cyber resiliency at no cost and with no risk.”

The OEIS is partnering with the Coast Guard to work with LNG ports and facilities. The reviews are a two-day non-compliance verbal review that is completed at the facility site and encompasses best cyber-practices for all aspects of digital communication to include corporate, building/emergency services, remote connectivity (vendors, member companies, etc.), backup center(s) and the operational network (control center and field device networks). Contracts, policies and procedures are also covered in the review.

These reviews are designed to be low-burden to a facility with no requested documentation prior to the review. The only the required information from the facility is network drawings for use during the review.

Note: The OEIS team does not take any drawings from the facility when the Review is completed.

An agenda is provided to the facility in advance, outlining topics and duration times, to enable a facility to schedule their appropriate subject matter experts.

Please email or call the Coast Guard’s Office of Port and Facility Compliance if you are a LNG MTSA regulated facility and interested in participating in this voluntary initiative. You can reach the CG-FAC representative at Joshua.D.Rose@uscg.mil or (202) 372-1106.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.