On the heels of potentially the most widespread cyber attack by a nation state on U.S. water systems in history, DEF CON Franklin and the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) have launched the Water Watch Center (WWC). The WWC gives small water utilities direct support and improves utilities' cyber defenses to help identify attacks and mitigate breaches.
Under this new program, an initial set of five managed detection and response providers has joined forces with DEF CON Franklin and NRWA to deliver cyber services directly to small water utilities serving fewer than 10,000 people, which make up 91 percent of the approximately 50,000 community water systems in the country.
These providers, including Defendify, Legato Security, L1 Secure, Rapid7, and Sentinel Technologies, will exchange threat information through a dedicated collaboration mechanism and share that information with NRWA, which serves as the national hub.
This new program was announced during the annual DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, following a two-year effort in which DEF CON Franklin recruited a pool of nearly 450 volunteer cyber experts and paired many with water and wastewater utilities in Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. That work strengthened defenses at individual utilities, however, it also laid bare the intractable problem of scaling security for 150,000 water and wastewater utilities.
The Water Watch Center staff have also begun working with Cyber Maryland to identify and engage rural water utilities across the state of Maryland, to reach systems in states beyond the original seven and, in particular, those civilian utilities supporting military and intelligence assets. "
Multiple philanthropic and government organizations are supporting the stand-up of the effort. "Rural water systems keep small-town America running, and the folks who operate them shouldn't have to face foreign hackers alone," said Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, who provided seed investment for the initiative. "The volunteers and water operators behind the Water Watch Center are doing real cyber civil defense, and I'm glad to support their efforts to help keep our nation's critical infrastructure safe and secure."
The Water Watch Center is working with Vanderbilt University to apply research from the DARPA Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environment (CASTLE) program. This partnership will aim to create "digital twins" for a select few WWC water and wastewater system environments.
Then, researchers will deploy red and blue team agents in these environments, in order to rigorously test and refine automated defensive approaches against cyber attacks - ultimately with the goal of deploying AI defensive solutions to water and wastewater systems nationwide.
Dr. Daniel Balasubramanian, the PI of Vanderbilt's team on CASTLE, is excited to apply his team's expertise on building digital twins to the water domain. "By leveraging digital twins, we can safely emulate these complex environments and train AI-driven defensive agents to detect and neutralize attacks. Our ultimate goal is to translate this rigorous testing into robust, real-world protections for water systems across the nation."
Named after Benjamin Franklin — among a litany of better-known accomplishments, also founded America's first volunteer fire department — for his commitment to science and civics. DEF CON Franklin's mission is to help put out cyber "fires" for vulnerable critical infrastructure, starting with water systems, wastewater facilities, and schools across the nation.
The project also publishes the Hackers' Almanack, turning insights from DEF CON's annual conference to better U.S. cybersecurity policy. DEF CON Franklin is a project of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, where Jake Braun serves as the Executive Director.
For more information or to be connected with a hacker or utility, visit defconfranklin.com.
