Water utilities would get cybersecurity boost under bipartisan Senate bill

The Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act would expand USDA’s Circuit Rider Program.

Small water and wastewater utilities would get a boost to their cybersecurity defenses under a bipartisan Senate bill that a pair of lawmakers re-introduced Thursday.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., are taking another swing at the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act after the legislation stalled out in the 118th Congress.

The bill would update and expand the Department of Agriculture’s Circuit Rider Program, which provides technical assistance to rural water systems. The lawmakers’ legislation calls on the program to develop protocols to bolster water systems’ cyber defenses and provide additional aid to improve protections.

According to a press release announcing the bill, just 20% of water and wastewater systems across the country have basic cyber protections.

“As our near-peer adversaries continue to utilize cyberattacks, we must have cybersecurity safeguards in place to protect our critical infrastructure such as water systems,” Rounds said in a statement. “Our legislation would modernize and expand the Circuit Rider Program, providing cybersecurity-related technical assistance to rural water and wastewater systems.”

A year ago, the Biden administration issued warnings to U.S. governors about “disabling” cyberattacks that targeted water systems throughout the United States, while pushing local authorities to devote more resources to protecting the utilities. Just over six months later, the New Jersey-based American Water Works Company was hit with a cyberattack, though there was no impact to water services.

The bill from Cortez Masto and Rounds is supported by the National Rural Water Association, Rural Community Assistance Partnership and Cyber Solarium 2.0.

“These water systems face real and immediate threats from both criminals and nation state actors that can have consequences on national security, economic productivity and public health and safety,” Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, executive director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, said in a statement. “The existing circuit rider program that this leverages is a proven vehicle for delivering security solutions.”

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The six-month program will be overseen by the Office of the National Cyber Director and Texas Cyber Command to “find out what works.”

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Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure

• Election official says Tina Peters would be consultant, won’t have access to election systems