(TLP:CLEAR) NSA Releases Best Practices Guide for Cyber Hygiene to Counter AI-Enhanced Targeting
Created: Thursday, September 10, 2026 - 14:53
Categories: Cybersecurity, Federal & State Resources, Security Preparedness
Summary: On September 3, 2026, the NSA released a Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI), “Best Practices Guide for Cyber Hygiene,” addressing how adversaries increasingly use AI to automate the intrusion lifecycle and exploit poor cyber hygiene such as unpatched systems, weak authentication, and misconfigurations. The guide prioritizes mitigations by effectiveness and organizes them into progressive maturity tiers, starting with Tier 0 immediate actions like network inventory, phishing-resistant MFA, and patching, then building toward Zero Trust practices, such as segmentation and continuous monitoring. NSA notes the mitigations were validated against AI-generated exploitation plans and AI-identified vulnerabilities.
Analyst Note: Although the CSI is written for the Department of War, Defense Industrial Base, and National Security Systems, its foundational guidance maps directly to the recurring weaknesses seen across water and wastewater environments, including default configurations, flat networks with no boundaries between IT and OT, and insufficient monitoring. The tiered structure is useful for utilities with limited resources, since it identifies high-impact, low-complexity actions to pursue first rather than requiring a full program buildout at once. WaterISAC encourages members to review the guide, particularly Appendix B on common misconfigurations and Appendix A on network inventory, and to use the Tier 0 items as a practical starting checklist. The emphasis on maintaining human oversight of AI-enabled defensive tools is also worth noting as utilities adopt automation.
Additional Reading:
- NSA’s Top Ten Cybersecurity Mitigation Strategies
- CISA Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals
- WaterISAC’s 12 Fundamentals for Water and Wastewater Utilities
Related WaterISAC PIRs: 6, 8, 10.1, 12