DHS Inspector General Says CISA Needs to Improve Water, Wastewater Sector Collaboration

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general said in a report that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency needs to improve its partnerships with the environmental sector to mitigate cyberthreats to water and wastewater services.

According to the Office of Inspector General’s report, CISA failed to share its cybersecurity expertise with the Environmental Protection Agency and other stakeholders despite having products and services that could mitigate threats to critical infrastructure. The oversight body also cited instances of inconsistent collaboration between CISA and the EPA and other stakeholders because of a lack of formal mechanisms, personnel and internal policies and procedures.

The OIG offered three recommendations, which CISA concurred with, Nextgov/FCW reported Tuesday.

The report came amid CISA’s efforts to improve cybersecurity capabilities for the critical infrastructure sector.

In November, the agency announced a pilot extending its Protective Domain Name System Resolver to critical infrastructure operators likely to be hit with cyberattacks. Under the pilot, CISA wants to find out which sector is interested in using commercial shared cybersecurity services.

In March, CISA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee met to discuss how to improve critical infrastructure cyber resilience. One of the topics covered is the use of private-public cybersecurity information exchange and data analysis focused on national security.