SmartSat Distinguished Speaker – Douglas Wiemer, RHEA Group

Establishing a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence for Space

Douglas Wiemer, Director, Cyber Security Solutions at RHEA Group

Mr. Douglas Wiemer began his career as a communications officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1990 with a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree. He attained his Masters of Engineering degree in 1995. Since that time, he has developed experience in a wide range of Information and Communications Technology related disciplines particularly in the area of cybersecurity. His experience spans security threat and risk assessment theory and practice, network and application security requirements analysis, cyber security architecture and design, cybersecurity technology research and development, vulnerability management and cyber defence. Since 2011, his experience has focused on cybersecurity of critical infrastructures and industrial control systems, with emphasis on cybersecurity and resilience of space systems. In his role as Chief Technology Officer – Cyber (CTO-Cyber) at the RHEA Group, he is responsible for the management, development and delivery of cybersecurity related services to European and Canadian agencies and industry, including the European Space Agency, NATO and private industry clients.

Abstract

Starting in Spring 2014, RHEA developed a business case and plan towards establishing a commercially oriented Cyber Security Centre of Excellence (CSCE) geared towards improving cybersecurity resilience of space systems and also in support of other critical infrastructures. In June 2017, RHEA was awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop the identified underlying technologies that were considered necessary for such a CSCE to be established. Technologies included, for example, a next generation Cyber Range capability, a collaborative information sharing and response coordination platform and an improved tool for conducting complex systems security engineering risk assessment throughout the space systems development life cycle. Since that time, RHEA has completed the development of these enabling technologies and embarked on a commercial business plan including several cybersecurity services delivered to the space and critical infrastructures markets. The presentation will describe the path taken to establish the CSCE, challenges, successes, lessons learned and outcomes.