EPA ‘urgently’ needs to step up cybersecurity assistance for the water sector, GAO says

[rbc]

The Environmental Protection Agency is falling far behind on some of the basic duties that come with its responsibilities as the federal lead for helping the water and wastewater sector fight against hackers amid increasing state-backed hacks, a new government watchdog report found.

The Government Accountability Office said in a report on the cybersecurity threats facing the sectors that the EPA “urgently” needs to develop a national strategy in order to address myriad cyber risks. The water sector itself has difficulty “developing a cybersecurity culture,” the GAO report noted, and that has seemingly led to a lack of basic cyber hygiene, which is further exacerbated by scarce resources for digital protections as the costs of maintaining the physical infrastructure increase.
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EPA ‘urgently’ needs to step up cybersecurity assistance for the water sector, GAO says