- According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency attacks against water and waste water utility plants are increasing
- If these attacks are successful it could leave residents with out clean water
- Watch to learn more about how government agencies are working to protect water utility companies from cyberattacks
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Turning on a faucet it's something we do every day but, this simple task could be under attack according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
"There have been a steady increase of the attacks or the attempted attacks on those sectors," said CISA Region 7 Directer Phil Kirk.
CISA and the Environmental Protection Agency are warning of potential cyberattacks on water and wastewater systems. Kirk says these attacks could shut down local utility companies, leaving neighbors with out clean water.
"The average person can survive for many many days with out food but they can only survive for about 3 days maybe with out water and think about everything the requires water. Our adversaries unfortunately understand that so it makes them..those sectors target rich," said Kirk.
If these cyberattacks are successful $5,600 goes down the drain for every minute systems are down. I contacted the Metropolitan Utilities District to see how they're handling the increase in cyberattacks, and they sent me the following statement:
"M.U.D. has a cyber security plan in place to protect the systems that operate our water and natural gas production and distribution facilities. M.U.D. invests in security solutions to protect our infrastructure and data systems."
M.U.D. is also conducting cyber security awareness training with all employees.
"Historically there's been a lot of focus on the physical security right, fencing and all those types of things and access, but, in this increasing environment where everything is connected now to the cyber realm and the internet it's becoming even more important that we have to pay attention to cyber. Because it controls everything from their security to the operational components of those systems, so everything that is connected has to be protected," said Kirk.
CISA-EPA are offering an online water and wastewater toolkit that provides:
- Free vulnerability scanning
- Free cybersecurity assessments
- Incident response guide
- Technical assistance support
- Stop ransomware resources
