Critical infrastructure

If that can actually happen, that will unclog the arteries.

making it difficult for labor stoppages to affect investments in ports, railroads, and other critical infrastructure.

That's just absolutely necessary in our country.

And I know that further measures will be coming around interprovincial trade barriers.

Other unions don't have that.

So I don't think it's fair to other labor people who don't have that same leverage.

So it's only fair, I think, if we're going to invest tens of billions of dollars in critical infrastructure across the country, that we're able to keep the trains running on time, keep the ports open.

The processes will be carefully calibrated.

Thank you for that, Dave.

But our internet, especially when you start having kids, is critical infrastructure in your home.

I actually just put an Anker Solix battery back up.

as my battery backup to run all of my gear, the switch, the router, the ONT, the firewall, the access points with the PoE injectors.

I mean, many of us have done it so many times in the past 20 years that, again, it's muscle memory for us.

But that's not everyone.

And I think that the challenge is How do we develop that muscle memory for these smaller utilities that are protecting this critical infrastructure so they're not exposing stuff to the internet?

On one extreme, I worked with a person that had a Motorola trunk radio system.

So, das heißt, man muss sich natürlich die Frage stellen, was so 'n Datenleck oder wer so 'n Datenleck verantwortet.

Es gibt 'nen Sachverständigen, ähm, KRITIS, ähm, Manuel Atuk, der ausdrücklich schon, schon lange davor gewarnt hat, dass die Informationen über besonders schützenswerte Gebäude, aber auch Anlagen in die Hände von Terroristen und Geheimdiensten kommen könnten.

Und das ist jetzt als Worst Case eingetreten.

Er hat-

Um, because what we found as the Hijaz Group is that, you know, we can continue to push this, this matter of trying to create and innovate and develop products and services and solutions, which, you know, I'm sure the market will continue to do and will continue to improve in the digital asset space, tokenization space, whatever the case may be.

But what we feel has been lacking for a long time has been around critical infrastructure that Islamic finance, the Muslim community more broadly, globally requires.

So for example, if we look at all Islamic finance products or services today, they are advertised and promoted and distributed on, you know, especially on the re- in the retail side.

It could be banking services or whatever it is.

But again, though those platforms aren't there championing Muslim va- values, Muslim culture, um, Is- Islamic, you know, values and ethos and these kinds of things.

So again, there is a disconnection between what's being promoted or delivered to the end user and what the p- what the platform itself is, is driving.

So that's where we feel this need for critical infrastructure is required.

So if we can create this environment, this ecosystem, I heard somebody else use the word ecosystem earlier, about, you know, where you have a platform that understands the Muslim community from the grassroots up, and then on that platform, we can go about building education about Islamic finance, the availability of products and services, promoting these, advertising these, specifically targeting the Muslim community where they are in a manner that appeals to them, then I think we can genuinely start to reach those heights that Islamic finance most definitely has the potential to reach, but so far is hitting this ceiling all the time.

Welcome.

It is perhaps hard to believe if you're a frequent listener to this show, but even with all of our modern infrastructure's reliance on position navigation and timing systems like GPS, space is still not technically classified as critical infrastructure by the U.S. federal government.

Yeah, it's wild, right? And that is where we'll start my conversation today with Sean McCurdy, who is the area vice president for national security at Elastic Government Solutions.

He says that when it comes to keeping space secure, it can help to frame space as an operational technology ecosystem, one that is analogous to terrestrial critical infrastructure, and he breaks it down into four segments, not two, all of which have their own distinct cybersecurity considerations and maintenance timelines.

Let's learn more.

My name is Sean McCurdy.

I'm the area vice president for our national security vertical at Elastic Government Solutions, which is a subsidiary of Elastic.

I've been in the IT industry a little over 30 years and started on the software development side first in the Web 1.0 era doing web development and front-end user interfaces, then in high-performance computing, then moved over into the side of being a technology consultant and spent about 17 years with Cisco Systems before venturing off into the cyber world about 10 years ago.

I really like the point where you said the Kenyan government is leading this conversation on digital infrastructure.

Is a data center a critical infrastructure? It is critical.

Has

it been assigned? Unfortunately, no.

Okay, bombed.

And God forbid that would happen to us.

I guess, you know, it's high time as we have this hyper conversation around data centers in Africa, then the next step is on regulating and assigning them that critical infrastructure.

There's a term I'm looking for, I'll look for it.

and direct financial impact on industry.

Ecosystems, from the watershed that supplies an industrial facility to the mangrove that buffers a port, are part of the landscape, but they are also critical infrastructure, assets that produce water, carbon storage, food, and financial stability for society as a whole.

The logic is straightforward.

Without water, there is no operation.

Organizations need to invest in tools and processes that can detect and respond to threats in real time, adapting as attackers change their tactics.

Critical infrastructure is also under sustained attack.

New malware strains are targeting SCADA systems and electrical substations through weaponized firmware.

These attacks go beyond data theft or financial loss.

Third, the rise of cloud and identity-based attacks calls for advanced detection capabilities, behavioral analytics, automation, and continuous monitoring.

are now table stakes for organizations that want to stay ahead of attackers.

Fourth, critical infrastructure and supply chain vulnerabilities remain high-value targets for sophisticated threat actors.

Defending these assets requires a combination of technical controls, strong governance, and close collaboration with partners and suppliers.

But it includes cyber attacks across NATO countries, Europe.

Here in the United States, we know that Iran is being named as the culprit behind cyber attacks against some of our water systems, another element of our critical infrastructure, water systems.

So what we're looking at really is an axis of aggression as sometimes it's called, and that would be Russia, Iran, China, add to that North Korea, those four anyway.

And so this emergency declaration though coming right after Director Ratcliffe returns from the trip to Moscow is notable and would seem to indicate at least concern and maybe a warning given to Vladimir Putin.