Cyber Conservative Operations

Technical Report · Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/3006950· OSTI ID:3006950

Yockey, Patience ^[1]; Chanoski, Sam ^[1]; Lampe, Benjamin ^[1]; Wright, Virginia ^[1]

---

1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

In an era of increasingly sophisticated and pervasive cyber threats, robust cyber resilience strategies are more critical than ever. This paper introduces the concept of Cyber Conservative Operations, a proactive approach designed to assist critical infrastructure owners and operators in managing risk and maintaining resilience in the face of imminent, yet not occurring, cyber events. By leveraging the principles of Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) and the energy sector’s practice of conservative operations, Cyber Conservative Operations offer a framework for planning and executing coordinated active defense and resilience-oriented actions ahead of cyber events. This approach aims to minimize the consequences of digitally-enabled hazards and ensure swift recovery from anticipated cyber threats. Cyber Conservative Operations enhance the ability of owners and operators to execute pre-planned defense and resilience actions, thereby reducing the impact of digitally-enabled hazards. These operations are crucial for addressing impacts that cannot be precisely quantified or forecasted and for preparing organizations for rapid recovery from imminent digital threats. The paper begins with a discussion of conservative operations as applied to the bulk power system (BPS), a current mechanism allowing BPS entities to enact defensive operating plans to mitigate impending grid unreliability. Building on this model, we present a concept for implementing cyber conservative operations at asset owner facilities. The paper concludes with two case studies of cyber conservative operations drawn from high-profile cyber events, illustrating the practical application and benefits of this proactive approach.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 3006950
• Report Number(s): INL/RPT--25-88265
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 - ENGINEERING
97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Active Defense
Cyber Conservative Operations
Cyber Resilience
Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE)
Digitally-enabled Hazards
Swift Recovery