Water sector leaders urged the Environmental Protection Agency to ramp up its oversight of cybersecurity standards as the sector risk management agency on Wednesday while describing nationwide water and wastewater systems as America’s “weakest link” when it comes to critical infrastructure.
The EPA only has an estimated $7 million in its annual budget dedicated to cybersecurity operations within the agency’s Office of Water, according to Mark Montgomery, executive director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission and senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. In its final report, the Solarium Commission recommended the EPA include at least $45 million in its annual budget to enhance water cybersecurity standards.
