Cybersecurity in Water Sector: Stakeholders Perspective

Abstract

Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure systems are becoming a significant concern. Sabotage and destruction of critical infrastructures may cause devastating impacts on physical systems, economic security, public health, and safety. The water sector is one of the most critical infrastructures, and as such, identifying and managing cyber threats on the water sector’s facilities is crucial to providing a continuous and safe supply of water. This study reports on a stakeholder engagement process conducted in the form of an active workshop that aims to show different stakeholder’s perspective on cyber threats, knowledge gaps, and barriers to implementations of cybersecurity procedures and technologies in the water sector. The workshop, demonstrated on the Israeli water and cyber sectors, brought together 45 professionals from the water and cyber sectors (government, academia, utilities, consultants, and commercial suppliers). In the cybersecurity domain, many studies focused on developing algorithms, but only a few considered the organizational and policy aspects of the problem. The present study addresses this gap and presents an example demonstrating the importance of integrating stakeholder engagement into decision making in the water domain. The workshop’s findings are summarized and analyzed to highlight top priority activity areas and suggest required actions according to the stakeholders’ perspective, which can help shape the landscape of the water sector’s cybersecurity.