CISA tells critical organizations to prepare for cyber outages

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – fresh out of the longest shutdown in government history and ready to begin hiring again after shedding staff for the past year – is out with new cybersecurity crisis planning guidance for critical infrastructure organizations.

CISA’s new “CI Fortify” initiative notably pushes water utilities, the transportation sector and other critical infrastructure organizations to plan for a “geopolitical crisis” involving cyber attacks that could sever their connections to internet, telecommunications and other technology services.

CISA’s guidance features two primary emergency planning objectives: “isolation” and “recovery” to mitigate threats. The former involves “proactively disconnecting from third-party and business networks” to safeguard operational technology, such as industrial control systems, from cyber attack during a crisis. CISA says organizations should be prepared to sustain “essential operations” rather than completely shutting down.

Read more at Federal News Network