The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it is forming a new “Water Sector Cybersecurity Working Group” to develop ways to address threats to the country’s water sector.
“In addition to considering water systems’ widespread vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and the challenges some systems face in adopting best practices, the task force’s deliberations will also seek to build on existing collaborative products,” the EPA said. Base.”
In a letter to all U.S. governors, EPA Administrator Michael Regan and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stressed the need to protect water and wastewater systems (WWS) from cyberattacks. cyberattacks that could undermine access to clean and safe drinking water.
At least two threat actors have been linked to intrusions into the country’s water systems, including an Iranian hacker group called Cyber Av3ngers and the China-linked Volt Typhoon, which targeted communications, energy, transportation and water supply and wastewater treatment systems industry in the United States and Guam for at least five years.
“Drinking water and wastewater systems are an attractive target for cyberattacks because they are lifeline critical infrastructure sectors but often lack the resources and technical capabilities to adopt rigorous cybersecurity practices,” Regan and Sullivan said.
At the same time, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a new fact sheet urging critical infrastructure entities to increase awareness of social engineering tactics by implementing security design principles, strong logging, and protecting supply chains. .
“Volt Typhoons have been pre-targeted on the networks of U.S. critical infrastructure organizations to disrupt or disrupt critical services in the event of heightened geopolitical tensions and/or military conflict with the United States and its allies,” the agency warned.
A report released last month by cybersecurity firm SentinelOne revealed how China has launched an offensive media strategy for more than two years to spread “unsubstantiated” accounts of U.S. hacking operations.
“Repeating China’s accusations helps [People’s Republic of China] Shaping global public opinion about the United States, China wants to see the world recognize the United States as the ‘Matrix,'” said Dakota Cary, Sentinel One’s China advisor.
“The fact that China is raising accusations of U.S. espionage is still noteworthy and, even if China does not support its claims, provides insight into the Sino-U.S. relationship.”
