Washington Cybersecurity Situational Awareness Project

The Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) and its Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR) were awarded a 2017 National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) Security and Resilience Challenge grant. The primary objective of this project was to establish a regional industry information-sharing and analysis process and to work with existing regulatory and standards organizations to create a robust cyber resource and information sharing community.

​View the final CONOPS.

The Gap
Today, there are few standards, processes, or procedures to define a cyber incident or clear protocols or processes for reporting cybersecurity incidents to local, state, and federal authorities. This shortfall has been a recurring deficiency that was identified in numerous after-action reports following workshops and exercises and real world events.

Project Scope
The purpose of the Cybersecurity Situational Awareness Project is to create a clear process and method for reporting cybersecurity incidents, enhance situational awareness, and foster a regional information and resource sharing community across jurisdictions and sectors. The overarching goal of the project is to develop a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for a standardized regional reporting method for significant
cyber incidents and to define the who, what, when, and where of that process.

This project prioritized expanding the emphasis on government and private sector partnerships, regional management of risk, disaster resilience/recovery, and business continuity/resumption of trade by looking at cyber threats and resiliency from a regional perspective with a project that emphasizes coordinated planning, training, and exercises with public and private sector partners. 

View Project Overview & Deliverables

View Project Timeline

Regional Cybersecurity Situational Awareness Project Workshops

Three workshops were held to develop and refine the CONOPS:

• Cyber Resilience Workshop | March 6, 2018
• Situational Awareness Workshop | June 18, 2018
  • Read the workshop report here. 
• Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Exercise | September 12, 2018
  • Read the workshop report here.

View the Final CONOPS