Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, founded in 1967 and based on a 6,800-acre site in Illinois, is the U.S. Department of Energy's flagship particle physics and accelerator laboratory. The attack surface here isn't just corporate endpoints - it's operational technology running particle accelerators , distributed computing grids handling physics data at massive scale, and the network infrastructure connecting an international research collaboration. The threat model includes nation-state actors targeting scientific IP, supply chain risks across global detector components, and the challenge of securing OT systems that can't simply be patched and rebooted mid-experiment. The lab's technical stack spans accelerator controls, high-performance computing, and large-scale data management. Fermilab operates the world's most powerful neutrino beam and leads the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a multi-national project that extends the security perimeter far beyond the Illinois campus. Computing infrastructure here means distributed grid computing serving thousands of physicists worldwide - identity federation, data integrity across continents, and network segmentation between experimental controls and office IT are operational realities, not abstract exercises. For security engineers, this is an environment where the physics mission defines the constraints. You're not protecting financial transactions or user data in the conventional sense - you're defending scientific instruments, experimental integrity, and the communication channels that let hundreds of institutions collaborate. The work involves securing legacy accelerator control systems alongside modern cloud-connected compute clusters, managing access for a transient population of visiting researchers, and maintaining compliance with DOE cybersecurity requirements without throttling the science.