{"id":11065,"date":"2026-03-09T13:06:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T13:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=11065"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:10:52","slug":"maryland-national-guard-hosts-critical-infrastructure-inter-agency-meeting-focused-on-the-energy-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2026\/03\/09\/maryland-national-guard-hosts-critical-infrastructure-inter-agency-meeting-focused-on-the-energy-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland National Guard hosts critical infrastructure inter-agency meeting focused on the energy sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Maj. Benjamin Hughes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CROWNSVILLE, Md. \u2014 The Maryland National Guard hosted federal, state, local, and industry leaders for a critical infrastructure inter-agency meeting designed to build collaboration between agencies and enhance resilience across the state\u2019s energy sector at the Maryland Department of Information Technology in Anne Arundel County, March 9, 2026.

Governor Wes Moore kicked off the meeting, which brought together key stakeholders from government, military, and business who are responsible for protecting and operating Maryland\u2019s critical infrastructure systems.

\u201cAs the governor, I\u2019ve been clear that there is no higher priority that I have than making sure the people of our state are safe,\u201d said Moore, during his opening remarks. \u201cIt is my responsibility to make sure you have everything you need to be prepared for anything, so we will be able to say clearly to the people of our state that because of the work you all are doing, we will be.\u201d

The meeting included a threat assessment from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an intelligence brief on nation-state threats to critical infrastructure by Maryland Air National Guard Maj. Mike DeZinna, director of operations for the 135th Intelligence Squadron. Brandon Gill from the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center presented his team\u2019s work on the threats and challenges related to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Questions from the attendees focused on identifying gaps in protection, improving information sharing, and building stronger partnerships ahead of the upcoming Maryland Critical Infrastructure Cyber Resilience Workshop Part II scheduled for March 18\u201320.

The engagement is designed to build on the success of Maryland\u2019s first state-led critical infrastructure cyber resilience workshop held in August 2025, which focused on the water and wastewater sector and convened more than 200 cybersecurity and infrastructure experts to improve collective cyber defense across government and industry.

The meeting ended with an introduction by Maryland Air National Guard Lt. Col. Michael Graham, J-6 for the Maryland National Guard Joint Staff, and Maryland Army National Guard Capt. Eric Gaiser, element lead for Cyber Protection Team 169, who will lead the cyber tabletop exercise focused on the energy sector that will be the culminating event at the workshop next week.

\u201cDefending against these threats requires a unified critical infrastructure team, and that is all of you,\u201d said Maryland Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, adjutant general of Maryland. \u201cWe have got to move forward and move forward quickly. The time for discussions is over. We have to take action, and I have faith we can do it. So let\u2019s take action, let\u2019s coordinate, and let\u2019s commit to making Maryland the most resilient state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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By Maj. Benjamin Hughes CROWNSVILLE, Md. \u2014 The Maryland National Guard hosted federal, state, local, and industry leaders for a critical infrastructure inter-agency meeting designed to build collaboration between agencies and enhance resilience across the state\u2019s energy sector at the Maryland Department of Information Technology in Anne Arundel County, March 9, 2026. Governor Wes Moore  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":11074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11065"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11082,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11065\/revisions\/11082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}