Cocktails and cigars at 5:30, with the presentation at 6:00 for about 30 minutes, followed by Q&A.
The rest of the evening is a mashup of eclectic conversation. Reservations are required.

The U.S. power grid is at risk and you should know about it.

You've read the headlines: Hackers Increasingly Probe North American Power Grid (Bank Info Security, 1/10/2020), How the US power grid became a big target for hackers (CNBC, 11/16/2019), Security News This Week: An Unprecedented Cyberattack Hit US Power Utilities (Wired, 9/7/2019), America’s Electric Grid Has a Vulnerable Back Door—and Russia Walked Through It (Wall Street Journal, 1/10/2019).  And we've known about this for a long time: How Power Grid Hacks Work, and When You Should Panic (Wired, 10/13/2017).  But it's difficult: Hacking The Electric Grid Is Damned Hard (FiveThirtyEight, 6/13/2018). And the United States government is playing this game, too: U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid (New York Times, 6/15/2019).

How could our national power grid be taken down?  What can we do to prevent it?  How should we, as individuals, be prepared, just in case?

Cyber-security and computer forensics expert Lee Neubecker will explain in detail how rogue hackers could take down the U.S. power grid.  Really. Now.  Lee will also explain • How your home devices in the "Internet of Things" can pose a serious risk • How to survive an extended power outage, and • What needs to be done in order to make our world more cyber-secure.



Our speaker, Lee Neubecker, is the founder and CEO of Enigma Forensics, here in Chicago. Before that, Lee was the CIO of HaystackID, a national provider of eDiscovery and other legal services. Earlier, Lee founded and later sold a successful computer-forensics expert-witness firm, Forensicon. Lee is a Certified Information Security Systems Professional and a licensed professional investigator (PI) in his birth state of Michigan.


About the Cigar Society of Chicago

ONE OF THE OLDEST AND greatest traditions of the city clubs of Chicago is the discussion of intellectual, social, legal, artistic, historical, scientific, musical, theatrical, and philosophical issues in the company of educated, bright, and appropriately provocative individuals, all under the beneficent influence of substantial amounts of tobacco and spirits.  The Cigar Society of Chicago embraces this tradition and extends it with its Informal Smokers, University Series lectures, and Cigar Society Dinners, in which cigars, and from time to time pipes and cigarettes, appear as an important component of our version of the classical symposium.  To be included in the Cigar Society's mailing list, write to the secretary at curtis.tuckey@logicophilosophicus.org