HSToday Editorial Board Member Bob Kolasky Invites Collaboration for Critical Infrastructure Protection Month

Dear HSToday Readers and Thought Partners,

As many of you know, November 1 marks the start of Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month and I’m pleased to reach out to you today to join Homeland Security Today and me, to contribute your ideas on how best to help strengthen the defense of our nation’s critical infrastructure.

As a practitioner of risk management solutions, and the former Director of the National Risk Management Center at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, this month always reminds me of the significant partnership between the public and private sectors in protecting our critical infrastructure.  As we face many uncertainties, it falls to dedicated professionals to connect, share information, find the best practices, and assure that critical functions can carry on.

Homeland Security Today covers some of the most important, and yet least covered, challenges for our nation.  We also contribute innovative ideas for addressing those challenges.  And that is why your contributions are so critical.

It’s not “newsworthy” if critical infrastructure companies in your community  avoid a physical or cyber attack because of strong defenses and effective planning.   It’s not the subject of conversation if you deliver reliable, safe, and resilient power to your population. It is not front-page news when that high school football game went off without a hitch.

At HSToday, we believe these instances are the news.  The good news.  All across the nation practitioners like you are vigilant, watchful, always improving your practices, evaluating the latest technologies, battling red tape, and fighting for budget dollars with the ultimate goal of protecting our critical infrastructure.  And this is true for both the private and public sectors.

We want you to share how you do it with us!

I invite you to share your advice and expertise here at Homeland Security Today.  Critical Infrastructure month starts tomorrow – November 1 – so send me your thoughts – today or anytime from now until the end of November so we can share your insights and lessons learned with our readership.

If you are a regular reader of HSToday, you know that we work to amplify Federal-sponsored  awareness months by encouraging you to share your insights, experiences, and best practices with colleagues and others in the HSToday readership.  We have worked to create a platform for homeland security leaders, experts, and practitioners to learn the latest thought leadership on addressing the most important risks facing our country.

We’re proud to say that your contributions are read and noted by law enforcement, emergency managers, counterterrorism experts and others across the world.   Only at HSToday do you have a cadre of experts who have practiced in both the public and private sector sharing their experiences to protect the nation through information sharing and intelligent, pragmatic problem-solving. Since 2017 we have grown web traffic from a mere 200,000 per year to 5 million + in 2023.

If you have new approaches, we are extremely interested in hearing about them.

If you have a best practice that should be shared across our community, please share it.

HSToday is your opportunity for peer-to-peer information exchange for challenges you see emerging, a security fix that helped your company or agency save money and secure your assets, a “lesson learned” from your experience – OR just your opinion about something going right, or wrong.

Thank you for your service on the front lines of keeping our Nation’s critical infrastructure functioning.  Thank you for reading HSToday and please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any ideas or suggestions.

Very respectfully,

Bob Kolasky

Senior Vice President for Critical Infrastructure, Exiger
Former Director, National Risk Management Center
Editorial Board Member, Homeland Security Today

Bob Kolasky

Bob Kolasky is the Senior Vice President for Critical Infrastructure at Exiger, LLC a global leader in AI-powered supply chain and third-party risk management solutions. Previously, Mr. Kolasky led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) National Risk Management Center. In that role, he saw the Center’s efforts to facilitate a strategic, cross-sector risk management approach to cyber and physical threats to critical infrastructure. As head of the National Risk Management Center, Mr. Kolasky had the responsibility to develop integrated analytic capability to analyze risk to critical infrastructure and work across the national community to reduce risk. As part of that, he co-chaired the Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force and led CISA’s efforts to support development of a secure 5G network. He also served on the Executive Committee for the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council. Previously, Mr. Kolasky had served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection (IP), where he led the coordinated national effort to partner with industry to reduce the risk posed by acts of terrorism and other cyber or physical threats to the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election infrastructure. . Mr. Kolasky has served in a number of other senior leadership roles for DHS, including acting Deputy Under Secretary for NPPD before it became CISA and the Director of the DHS Cyber-Physical Critical Infrastructure Integrated Task Force to implement Presidential Policy Directive 21 on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, as well as Executive Order 13636 on Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.

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