Exploring the Origins and Future of S4: A Conversation with Dale Peterson
As the industrial cybersecurity industry prepares to head to S4x24 this March at the Loews Miami South Beach, Florida, Industrial Cyber had the opportunity to talk with Dale Peterson, founder of the S4xEvent and CEO / catalyst at Digital Bond, to understand the origins, development, and the future direction of this event and the broader industrial cybersecurity sector.
Origins of S4
Peterson provides his insights on how S4 started and evolved into a major event in the industrial cyber world would be incredibly enlightening. He also shared the story behind its inception and growth, and what has been the most unexpected twist or development in the journey of S4.
“In 2006, one of our team members, Matt Franz, found some vulnerabilities in the two ICCP protocol stacks that represented 90%+ of the installed base. ICCP was then and is still today a very important protocol in the US electric sector,” Peterson said. “I urged Matt to present the work at a conference, and he said there was no place where the attendees understood ICS (I think he said SCADA because the term ICS didn’t exist yet) and cybersecurity.”
He added that “you can’t dive deep in a 30 or 45-minute presentation if you have to explain control systems or buffer overflows. We created S4 to provide such a place and help start and build the ICS security community.”
Pointing out that S4 stands for SCADA Security Scientific Symposium, the 2007 to 2010 editions of S4 had technical papers that were published in a softcover book. “There were 40 people at the first S4 in 2007, and about 10 who watched the live feed. We had Whit Diffie give the first S4 keynote to explain how he helped build the crypto community two decades earlier,” according to Peterson.
“We moved to larger rooms and eventually outgrew the original site and brought S4 to Miami South Beach in 2016. S4 had grown to about 350 attendees and now two stages,” Peterson detailed. “While community building is still important and happens at S4, we adopted the mantra Create The Future.”
Peterson said that to help create the future of OT and ICS security, S4 searches for the most innovative ideas and research to put in front of experienced early adopters. “And we do this in a creative environment that tries to jolt the attendees out of their ruts. It’s hard to explain unless you experience it, and a large portion of the credit goes to the attendees who have kept the spirit of the event even as it has grown from 40 to 1,100 people for 3 days on 3 stages.”
He added that while everyone is welcome at S4, “we design the event for the most experienced and forward-looking 10% in the community. There is a much larger number of people, probably 10x or 100x, who need the basics of OT and ICS security and there are a growing number of great events that fill that need.”
Envisioning the Future
As a front-runner in the industry, Peterson looks into where he sees the S4 event in the next five to ten years. Also, he provides his thoughts on how it will influence the evolving landscape of industrial cybersecurity.
“We’ve maxed out our current location the last two years, even with limiting the number of tickets a company can purchase for S4x24,” Peterson said. “This is a question we will think hard about after our event in March.”
He added that he doesn’t see the mission changing. “In fact, I think we need more innovation and experimentation than ever before. A lot of the guidance and good practice recommendations are having little or no impact on risk reduction. The good news is there are now more resources available for the community as awareness has grown,” he added.
Innovation at S4
Each year, S4 manages to reinvent itself with fresh and exciting features. Peterson provides insights into the new and special elements planned for the upcoming S4X24 event.
Peterson said that this “is our second year at the Loews Miami Beach Venue, so some of the innovation is improving what was new last year.”
Two new things for S4x24 that he would highlight are the Vulnerability Management Pavilion and Birds Of A Feather Room.
“One of the challenges in evaluating products is direct comparison. You get demos with the ideal environment and canned results. This is our attempt to solve this for an important product category,” Peterson said. “We hired the ICS Village to bring a highly realistic ICS to S4. The vendors in the Pavilion will be able to monitor the network traffic and scan the system to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. The attendees can walk from vendor and vendor and evaluate how they did.”
He added that with the increase in attendance, S4 has become a great place to hold meetings for projects, standards efforts, etc. “We made this room available to help move innovative projects forward. It also will be used for press briefings and extended Q&A with selected speakers.”
Peterson also said that there is so much going on – S4 Prime Rooms, graffiti art, Women In ICS Security program, S4 Lounge, Cabana Sessions, Charity: Water campaign, ICScape room, cigar rollers, s’mores over the Death Star fire pit, fortune tellers (to help create the future).
“We spend a huge amount of time on the 3-stage program to bring a variety of new ideas to the attendees,” Peterson detailed. “That being said, if the attendee achieves their goals by sitting under the tent outside in the Miami Beach weather talking to other attendees this is great as well.”
Long-term Viability and Positioning
Peterson also explored a critical question on the long-term future and viability of the industrial cybersecurity space. He also provides insights on whether he sees it remaining as a standalone vertical, or will become integrated into the broader cybersecurity market.
“I have predicted that most OT security product capabilities will be absorbed into broader cybersecurity products because this is what the customer wants,” Peterson said. “The detection products are a great example. Directionally I’m confident in this prediction, the timeframe I much less certain. This absorption has been slower than I expected over the past five years. OT security products will still be around and growing in 3 years. 5, 8. or 10 years I’m less certain.”
He added that the OT security services market is more likely to remain separate whether it be a separate company or a separate practice in a larger company.
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