Water and Wastewater Utilities and other Critical Infrastructure Fortify Defenses Against Cyber Attacks

In 2023, cyber threats to critical infrastructure, including the water and wastewater sector, surged, prompting integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. Encryption, anomaly detection, and multi-factor authentication strengthened defenses.

Interviewed for an article from Industrial Cyber, WaterISAC Director of Infrastructure Cyber Defense Jennifer Lyn Walker shed light on the sector’s key takeaways, emphasizing the need for continuous cybersecurity measures. She highlighted ongoing initiatives like CSC 2.0, Dragos OT-CERT, Cyber Readiness Institute, and MITRE to bolster cybersecurity and resilience in the water and wastewater systems sector. Jennifer also noted despite the withdrawal of the EPA memo, some states independently advanced cybersecurity requirements. The water and wastewater sector’s heightened cyber threats were exemplified by the recent cyber attack on the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa by the Iranian-backed CyberAv3ngers group, which WaterISAC has covered in separate postings (including her). The Industrial Cyber article also discusses cyber threats to the healthcare sector, which faced a record number of ransomware attacks that exploited digital vulnerabilities. Health-ISAC President and CEO Denise Anderson, who was also interviewed for the article, provided her perspectives on these and other threats facing the health sector. Read more at Industrial Cyber.