🔴 WaterISAC reckons with range of threats after summer of cyberattacks

The computers that automate water treatment systems across the country were built for durability, not for an internet-connected world. Many still accomplish their fundamental function, but as cyberattacks on the sector mounted this summer, water industry officials say those aging systems, especially internet-exposed operational technology and programmable logic controllers, remain among the easiest ways for adversaries to break in.

Tom Dobbins, executive director of the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center or WaterISAC, told CyberScoop the sector’s biggest ongoing weaknesses include exposed OT, vulnerable PLCs, insecure connections through integrators and poor cyber hygiene at smaller utilities, which have pushed the center to make threat sharing faster across the sector.