The National Rural Water Association (NRWA) has partnered with DEF CON Franklin, a volunteer cybersecurity group, to launch the Water Watch Center (WWC), a program aimed at delivering threat intelligence and defensive support to small, cash-strapped water and wastewater utilities across the United States.
The initiative pairs the NRWA with five managed detection and response providers, Rapid7, Defendify, Legato Security, L1 Secure and Sentinel Technologies, which will share threat data and vulnerability patch information through the NRWA acting as a central hub. The program targets water utilities serving fewer than 10,000 people, a group that makes up 91% of the more than 50,000 community water systems in the U.S.
Jake Braun, co-founder of DEF CON Franklin and a former cyber official in the Biden administration, said the goal is to build a scalable cyber delivery model for the sector, something he said has previously eluded both industry and national security officials. He said the selected providers already work with water utilities and understand the specific operational technology environments involved, while DEF CON Franklin volunteers will help keep costs down for utilities facing threats from state-linked adversaries.
Responding to an active threat
The launch comes as water utilities in at least 12 states, including Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, South Dakota and two towns in New Jersey, have reported cyberattacks on operational technology tied to a campaign allegedly linked to Iranian hackers. The Water Watch Center is intended to provide direct mitigation support for incidents like these.
DEF CON Franklin formed two years ago out of the DEF CON security conference community and has recruited roughly 450 volunteer experts, previously pairing them with utilities in states including Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming. That earlier effort proved the model could work but also highlighted the challenge of scaling support to the roughly 150,000 water and wastewater systems nationwide, a figure that includes community systems, public systems serving schools and hospitals, and facilities serving transient populations such as gas stations and campgrounds.
The WWC has already begun identifying rural utilities needing assistance in Maryland, with a focus on systems supporting military installations. NRWA CEO Matthew Holmes said the program gives rural systems trusted resources to secure critical infrastructure amid growing risk.
Organizers also said they are working with Vanderbilt University and the U.S. military to build digital replicas of water and wastewater environments, allowing defenders to test automated response strategies before deploying them in production systems.
The NRWA has previously opposed federal cybersecurity mandates for water utilities, citing cost concerns for customers, a stance that has pushed some states, including New York, to pair regulatory requirements with grant funding for defensive upgrades.