How U.S. water infrastructure became a ‘huge’ cyber target

On the latest episode of StateScoop’s Priorities podcast, Samuel Alva, a technical adviser with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, explains the “huge” threat facing the nation’s tens of thousands of water utilities, and what they can do to protect themselves. “Water is a single point of failure. So that’s why it has been under attack,” he says. CISA is among the organizations assisting the water sector, including by providing cybersecurity assessments of their operational technologies. Alva says it’s a “daunting” task helping thousands of utility operators become trained on a technical topic that hasn’t traditionally been in their wheelhouse. But a promising cybersecurity training program in Kansas is gaining attention from other states, including California, Maryland and Texas.

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New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

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