Water quality needs cybersecurity
The water and waste water sector is critical for society, the economy as well as the health of people and the environment. The advancing digitization and process automation optimize operations, but also create new attack surfaces for cyber attacks as well as human error. The near-miss incident at the Oldsmar water utility in Florida, USA demonstrated how quickly water quality can be put at risk. Not only was it sheer luck that nothing worse happened. Because visibility into the OT was lacking, it also remained unclear for two (!) years whether the incident was a cyberattack or internal error.
At the same time, the water sector is struggling with a lack of skilled personnel for operational technology (OT) security, while policymakers and associations are expanding requirements for critical infrastructure.