U.S. water utilities have become easy targets for state-backed groups to test their ability to infiltrate infrastructure and remain unnoticed.
This year alone, groups from China, Iran, and Russia have been found hiding in OT infrastructure systems used to control water utilities, with some groups flooding them with water.
As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to step up testing of U.S. drinking water to reduce the impact of a successful attack on water facilities.
Light of hope?
Recent inspection results for U.S. water utilities have not been encouraging, with EPA's own testing showing that 70% of water systems will meet cyber standards set forth in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) starting in September 2023. It became clear that it was not.
Hygiene is especially important in both drinking water and cyber, and EPA frequently finds SDWA violations involving simple cyber hygiene steps, such as changing the default password provided on unsecured endpoints. And that's exactly how a Russian state-backed group hacked into water utilities earlier this year.
China-based groups frequently exploit techniques to operate far from the ground to avoid detection within U.S. infrastructure, the EPA said in its advisory. There is. future. “
EPA further states that additional SDWA compliance will be enforced and that “when vulnerabilities are identified and have the potential to pose an immediate and significant risk to public health, SDWA Section 1431 will be implemented to mitigate those risks.” Enforcement measures based on the Article 11 may be appropriate.”
via The Verge.