Who Will Stop The Hackers?

By Kevin Westerling

With cyber threats against critical water infrastructure on the rise, the U.S. government, utilities, and private security firms seek solutions before it’s too late.

The nation’s cybersecurity issue has been festering for an uncomfortably long time. It’s a crisis waiting to happen, and each day the threat is ignored is a gamble. Eventually luck runs out, however, and the folks in Washington have deemed that the stakes are simply too high to leave to chance, especially when the odds of avoiding a catastrophe get ever-slimmer.

In the last year alone, the number of attacks against critical infrastructure reported to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) increased by 383%, according to U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We are constantly learning of new cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure, government systems, and businesses,” he told me. “And it appears there is no end in sight.”