Cyberattacks On Water Utilities Renew Dem Calls For Regulations [1]
"Two Senate Democrats introduced a bill Monday to set cybersecurity standards for water utilities — something Republicans and industry have long fought."
"The coordinated series of cyberattacks launched on U.S. drinking water and wastewater utilities across the country in recent weeks has alarmed lawmakers on Capitol Hill — but it remains to be seen whether the threat will be enough to break the impasse over mandating basic security standards for the sector.
The vulnerabilities that hackers have been exploiting to attack water systems in at least 30 systems across 12 states were well known and could have been easily identified and addressed with simple fixes, cybersecurity experts say.
But for the better part of two decades, efforts to require the nation’s drinking water and wastewater systems to meet minimum cybersafety standards have been stymied by lawmakers’ reluctance to force new requirements onto the country’s smallest water systems."