Dear Fellow Protectors,
Global affairs in 2026 have been deeply unsettled. We aren’t the types to sleep well to begin with, but with 2027 only 345 days away, the spate of significant international crises has only increased the urgency of our mission.
Building resilience in our communities is something we can all focus on in these tumultuous times. And, as friends of the UnDisruptable 27 project, we want to bring our engineering-forward approach to your communities! As we look to hone our methodology across the country, we’d welcome nominations of hospital communities that would be open to co-creating effective solutions with us.
In particular, we’re looking for water utilities that serve hospitals and that are not already leaders in cybersecurity. Because this is a community-based project, we’re happy to go into a utility directly or through the hospital, the town planner, or a local emergency manager. Your recommendations are welcome, and warm introductions even more so.
We’re working on some new videos that we hope to share with you all next month as we continue to refine the storytelling that will ensure we can scale our project. In the meanwhile, come find us on the road, check out UnDisruptable27.org for all our latest content, and subscribe to the Hack the Plant podcast, hosted by friend of the project Bryson Bort, to hear interesting stories from the front lines where bits and bytes meet flesh and blood.
Happy New Year!
Joshua Corman
Executive in Residence for Public Safety & Resilience
Stephanie Ross
Managing Program Director for Public Safety & Resilience
Nicholas Leiserson
Senior Vice President for Policy
Critical Effect DC Conference
Save the Date: June 17-18
Mark your calendars! Our two-day Critical Effect Conference is coming back to Washington, DC. With 2027 getting closer, we are prioritizing ideas that lead to real, actionable impact.
Stay tuned – the official Call for Papers will be announced soon. Critical Effect DC is an annual critical infrastructure-focused conference connecting policymakers, members of civil society and academia, and OT/ICS stakeholders. Presented by ICS Village, in partnership with the Institute for Security and Technology’s UnDisruptable27 project.
Where We'll Be
January 21 – 2nd Town Hall with U27 Volunteers, see details in the U27 Slack Channel
January 24-25 – U27 volunteers at DistrictCon sharing “Shelter from the Typhoon”
February 19 – Speaking to Louisiana Infragard Chapter (Josh & Stephanie)
February 23 – BSidesICS (Miami) – speaker track (Josh & Stephanie)
March 5-6 – Josh running a workshop at Dartmouth Cyber-Resilient Health Care: Towards Innovation and Implementation with one track focused on Utilities and Critical Infrastructure
March 24 – Josh co-speaking on Volt Typhoon at RSA Conference: “Critical Infrastructure: A Fortnight w/o Water: Is Secure by Design Too Late for Lifeline Functions?”
June 17-18 – Critical Effect Conference, Washington, DC – Save the Date!
Where We've Been
Enjoying the holidays and sharing probing questions with our families as part of Operation FrostyVolt!
Our Media Diet
Hack the Plan[e]t podcast: Host Bryson Bort is joined by Dd Budiharto, Microsoft’s Customer Security Officer for the Oil, Gas, and Energy sectors, as she shares her experience bridging the IT/OT divide in the energy sector.
Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Podcast: Josh made best of bonus wrap up… (and so did Cyber Resilience Corps Team)
In Federal News Network, Jaya Baloo highlighted Josh and U27 in her piece on the state of U.S. cybersecurity.
The FT’s story on the compromise of Congressional staff accounts by the PRC continues a trend of growing adversary capability.
Interesting reporting in The Wall Street Journal about Iranian hackers targeting less well-resourced entities. While the hacks have largely been about stealing data to date, the target set is very concerning.
Previous editions
Happy Holidays from U27
In the inaugural edition of the UnDisruptable27 newsletter, learn how to participate in FrostyVolt’25, where to find us, and what we’ve been reading.
