Issues of critical infrastructure security are now coming to the forefront of the global agenda, transforming from a purely technical task into an element of states’ strategic stability. At the vanguard of this struggle stand professionals whose extraordinary talent and visionary approach define the future of the industry. One such specialist is Pavel Mishchenko – a man whose experience and intellectual leadership have literally broken through the wall of outdated approaches to IT and security system integration. His career path is an ascent to the top of the industry, where he rightfully occupies a place among the world’s leading experts capable of managing the most complex projects at the intersection of physical and digital protection. Today we are speaking with Mr. Mishchenko about the challenges of tomorrow and the technologies that will become our shield.
Pavel, we are witnessing a fundamental shift in the threat landscape for critical infrastructure. If previously the main focus was on physical perimeter protection, today the discussion is about hybrid attacks and cyber-physical systems. In your opinion, what is the nature of this transformation and its main driving force?
– You have accurately captured the essence of what is happening. The nature of this transformation lies in the blurring of boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. Previously we dealt with two relatively independent threat vectors: a conventional intruder with a crowbar and a conventional hacker thousands of kilometers away. Today these two aspects have merged into a single, far more sophisticated threat. The main nerve is total digitalization and interconnection of industrial control systems (ICS). Every sensor, every controller, every element of an access control system connected to the network becomes a potential entry point. An attack that begins in cyberspace can lead to very real physical consequences: turbine shutdowns, tank depressurization, power outages across entire regions. The adversary no longer merely steals data, he seeks to gain levers of control over physical processes. This is no longer a matter of IT security in its classical sense, but of technogenic safety initiated from the digital realm.
Speaking of convergence, we cannot ignore the human factor. Technologies may be perfect, but humans always remain a potentially vulnerable link. How does this aspect manifest itself in projects of the scale you are currently leading in Egypt within the Rosatom structure, where thousands of people from different countries and cultures work on a single site?
– The human factor is not just a vulnerable link, it is an entire dimension of risk requiring a special approach. In megaprojects such as the construction of a nuclear power plant in Egypt, this problem multiplies many times over. We are dealing with a multinational workforce, a huge number of subcontractors, and constant staff rotation. In such an environment, it is impossible to rely solely on technical means. My task as a leader is to build a comprehensive security ecosystem. At its core lies not only advanced equipment – biometric access control systems, intelligent video surveillance analyzing behavior, or secured structured cabling networks. The foundation is the creation of a deep safety culture. Every employee, from engineer to builder, must clearly understand his personal responsibility. This is achieved through continuous training, strictest access protocols, the principle of least privilege, and constant auditing. We create an environment where any deviation from the norm – whether an attempt to connect an unauthorized device or unusual behavior in a protected area – is immediately detected and analyzed. Technology here serves as a tool for managing the human factor, not replacing it.
Which technology stacks and concepts do you consider most promising for countering these complex, multidimensional threats? Artificial intelligence is much talked about today, but is there not a certain degree of marketing exaggeration in this?
– Of course, there is hype around artificial intelligence. However, behind the marketing fluff lies a powerful tool capable of radically changing our approach to security. This is not about some “superintelligence” from science fiction, but about the applied use of machine learning for predictive analytics and anomaly detection. Modern critical infrastructure facilities generate colossal volumes of data: system logs, sensor readings, video streams, personnel movement data. A human operator is physically unable to process and correlate all this information in real time. ML algorithms, on the other hand, can identify non-obvious correlations indicating preparation for an attack. For example, the system may detect a slight change in network traffic, correlate it with an unusual route taken by an employee and an attempt to access data unrelated to his duties, and then automatically raise an alarm. Another breakthrough technology, in my view, is “digital twins.” Creating a complete digital copy of a facility allows not only modeling its operation in normal mode but also playing out any attack scenarios – both cyber and physical – without the slightest risk to the real infrastructure. This enables us to test protective mechanisms, identify vulnerabilities, and stay one step ahead of a potential adversary.
The concept of “zero trust” is becoming mainstream in corporate IT. To what extent is this philosophy, rather than just a set of tools, applicable and effective in the realities of industrial giants with their complex and often legacy equipment?
– Zero Trust is indeed a philosophy, and its adaptation for the industrial sector is one of the most ambitious tasks of our time. The classical “castle and moat” approach, where we protect the perimeter but trust everything inside, is completely obsolete. In critical infrastructure, where the consequences of failure are catastrophic, it is simply unacceptable. The philosophy of “never trust, always verify” is absolutely organic here. Every request, every device, every user trying to access any network resource must undergo strict authentication and authorization, regardless of location. Yes, implementing this approach in industrial networks is fraught with difficulties. We often deal with equipment created decades ago that was never designed for modern network realities. Therefore, integration occurs gradually. We begin with network micro-segmentation, isolating the most significant areas. We implement security gateways that act as intermediaries between old and new equipment. We use overlay networks to create secure channels on top of existing infrastructure. It is a complex, almost jewelry-like integration effort, but it is non-negotiable. Trust in our field is an unaffordable luxury.
Looking into the future, say on a 5–10 year horizon, how do you see the trajectory of security systems development for critical facilities?
– The trajectory is undoubtedly toward the creation of proactive, self-learning, and fully integrated security systems. We will move away from the reactive approach, when the system responds to an incident that has already occurred, toward a predictive one, where the system prevents it at the planning stage. It will be a unified, holistic ecosystem in which data from a vibration sensor on a fence, analytics from surveillance cameras, information from an access control system, and network activity logs will all be analyzed in a single center with the help of AI. The system will not only raise an alarm but also propose ready-made response scenarios to the operator or even take countermeasures automatically.
And what, in your view, defines a leader capable of guiding the industry in this new, ultra-complex reality?
– The leader of the future is a strategist with deep interdisciplinary thinking. He must be equally well-versed in IT, physical security, psychology, geopolitical risks, and the specifics of a given industry, whether nuclear energy or a transport hub. This is a person capable of seeing not individual components – cameras, servers, programs – but the entire system as a whole, with all its complex internal and external interconnections. It is the ability to think several moves ahead, to anticipate threats not yet even articulated, and to have the courage to implement breakthrough, sometimes unpopular solutions. To lead in this new reality means to bear enormous responsibility and to have a vision that goes beyond conventional frameworks.