Water Agencies Seek to Head Off ‘Devastating’ Cyberattacks

The water crisis in Jackson, Miss., underscores critical infrastructure’s vulnerability to threats ranging from climate change to deferred maintenance and life-threatening cyberattacks, industry officials warned lawmakers Wednesday.

While Jackson’s water system was strained by devastating floods, cybersecurity remains a glaring vulnerability for the nation’s water plants.

“I look at two things that have changed dramatically in my career—cyber and climate,” Craig Fugate, a Federal Emergency Management Agency leader during the Obama administration, told the House Homeland Security panel Wednesday. “Neither were things we were planning for when I started my career, and now they’re at the pinnacle of the risk ...