Tommy Brown, Former Senior Manager, Tampa Bay Water
December 4, 2017
Kay Kimball
President, The Security Oracle, Inc.
Dear Ms. Kimball,
I was impressed by The Security Oracle, Inc. (TSO) video on how TSO's disruptive robotic solution, RCADS® (Remotely Controlled Active Defense and Denial System/ Robots in the Sky®) can protect US and global energy, water, and other utilities.
Water is one of the most important substances on earth. Less than 1% of the water on earth is drinkable. The Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan (2013) identifies Water and Wastewater as one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors. The Water and Wastewater Sector Specific Plan (SSP) published in 2015 identifies the threat of intentionally malicious acts as a high-risk threat to the sector. As a former senior manager for Tampa Bay Water responsible for security and emergency preparedness, I can confirm this assessment of risk to be accurate. Among the top goals and objectives of the SSP and now water utilities across the US is to sustain protection of public health and the environment by evaluating and developing surveillance, monitoring, warning, and response capabilities to recognize and address all-hazards risks at Water and Wastewater Sector systems that affect public health and economic viability. The history of past attacks on water systems and the most pressing vulnerabilities and risks facing modern water systems has been well-documented by the Pacific Institute.
I believe that TSO’s security appliance, RCADS® is the breakthrough solution that the Water and Wastewater’s SSP is calling for. TSO’s Defense-in-depth RCADS® is now the best practice for securing water utility assets, because it transforms current physical security measures from passive surveillance and detection to real-time warning and accelerated response with remotely administered non-lethal countermeasures such as high-intensity sound and light to demobilize intruders. Also, as water and wastewater utilities across the US face the huge depletion of highly trained people due to baby boomers approaching retirement age, TSO’s RCADS® provides utilities with an asset management tool that the next generation of water utility operators can quickly understand and use.
I look forward to the opportunity to partner with TSO in providing training for water utility operators in system set up, administration, event escalation, logging and maintenance to ensure software integrity and authenticity, enable intelligence planning and collection management through collaborative documentation efforts, procurement acceptance testing and defense-in-breadth best practices so that the public can feel certain that its drinking water and wastewater systems and the people and industries that rely on them will not be crippled by malicious acts.
Sincerely,
Tommy Brown
Former Senior Manager, responsible for Security and Emergency Preparedness
Tampa Bay Water, A Regional Water Supply Authority
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