Water sector expands partnership with volunteer hackers

Water utilities are some of the most vulnerable U.S. critical infrastructure organizations, but some of them could get a cybersecurity boost from an army of volunteer white-hat hackers.

Several cyber experts have already been assisting small water treatment facilities with security improvements as part of a public-service project called DEF CON Franklin, which launched at the DEF CON cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas in 2024. But at this year’s DEF CON conference, the project’s organizers announced plans to scale up that initiative in partnership with the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) and help secure thousands of water systems across the U.S.

“We’ve seen both the urgency of the threat and the potential of a community-driven solution,” Jake Braun, the co-founder of DEF CON Franklin, said in a statement.

Read more at Cybersecurity Dive