In an exclusive interview for the Hall of Fame series, Industrial Cyber spoke with Sarah Freeman, chief engineer for intelligence, modeling, and simulation at MITRE’s Cyber Infrastructure Protection Innovation Center (CIPIC). In her current role, she provides actionable cyber threat intelligence and develops innovative security solutions for federal government partners and private sector entities, focusing on protecting U.S. critical infrastructure.
"My time focused on Ukraine has permanently shifted my thoughts on cybersecurity. Before spending time there, I think I had a more binary approach – either you had a good security posture or a bad one; either you were actively compromised, or you were clean," said Freeman.
"In Ukraine, I was forced to come to terms with the reality of an enduring cyberwar. Adversary expulsion from critical networks was nearly impossible, and resource limitations prohibited some of my black and white solutions. This was the first time that I faced a truly contested environment. Ensuring the continued functions of critical infrastructure required a kind of acceptance that the traditional OT security boundaries were insufficient to stop the adversary. Instead, new approaches were needed to counter adversary cyber operations," added Freeman.