An attack on the water treatment facility of a small town in Florida this year continues to shape policymakers’ approach to cybersecurity, with key lawmakers citing the incident while discussing their priorities.
Some members of the congressionally established Cyberspace Solarium Commission—Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Jim Langevin, D-R.I. and Samantha Ravich, chair of the Center for Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies—participated Tuesday in Hack the Capitol. The event, created by security researchers and sponsored by cybersecurity companies, was focused on securing the industrial control systems of critical infrastructure.
Asked to do the equivalent of choosing between her children in disclosing what critical infrastructure sector worries her the most, Ravich did not hesitate.
“I'll give everyone a hint, it’s what I’ve been drinking out of this bottle,” she said. “Water security, you know, terrifies me. A lot of attention goes to the energy sector and that is right, that is important, but frankly, in some respects, especially just as an average citizen, you can live without the lights on for a bit but, but try to live without water for even a few days.”
Ravich argued that an unknown intruder attempting to poison a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida, in February shows that adversaries are aware of the vulnerabilities in the country’s water supply and demonstrated “the ease with which even an inexperienced hacker could alter the performance of automated production chemical balancing systems.”
Ravich and the other commissioners noted that there are elements that are foundational to security across multiple critical infrastructure systems, but both Gallagher and Langevin also found a powerful example of why they matter in the Florida water hack.
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