Critical Infrastructure Security, ICS/SCADA, Governance, Risk and Compliance
White House, EPA expand cybersecurity initiative to vulnerable water sector

A water treatment facility in Florida. An industrial control system cybersecurity initiative established by the Biden administration for the electric and pipeline industries will be expanded to include critical infrastructure entities in the water and wastewater sectors. (Credit: Getty)
An industrial control system cybersecurity initiative established by the Biden administration for the electric and pipeline industries will be expanded to include critical infrastructure entities in the water and wastewater sectors.The initiative, which will be managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, will take place over the next 100 days and includes a series of actions that are designed to improve the coordination between industry and the federal government, deploy new technologies to help protect industrial control systems and improve information sharing channels.As part of a plan developed jointly by the EPA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Council and two water sector coordinating councils, the government will provide enhanced technical support to establish a new task force of leaders in the water sector, road test new pilots to push for the adoption of incident monitoring technologies and work to improve information sharing and data analysis around cyber threats.“The action plans for the electric grid and pipelines have already resulted in over 150 electricity utilities serving over 90 million residential customers and multiple critical natural gas pipelines deploying additional cybersecurity technologies,” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging threats at the National Security Council, said in a statement. “This plan will build on this work and is another example of our focus and determination to use every tool at our disposal to modernize the nation’s cyber defenses, in partnership with private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure.” Many of the actions would be voluntary, and the White House referenced past incidents like the Colonial Pipeline and JBS ransomware attacks highlight the government’s “limited authorities to set cybersecurity baselines for critical infrastructure and managing this risk requires partnership with the private sector and municipal owners and operators.”
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