System backups that rely on humans are central to 'trusted' cyber defenses for a digital economy

As the Obama administration moves forward on automated information sharing to address cyber threats in real-time, a central component of this machine-to-machine strategy will likely be human intervention and the role of manual backup systems in the event that a hack takes down the electricity grid or other industrial operations.

It's an interesting dichotomy to consider that as industrial control systems become more interconnnected and reliant on data-driven processes, and as cyber-threat intelligence exchanges become more automated, that human intervention...