The White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) plans to expand the model behind its Project Watershed 250 water cybersecurity pilot into other critical infrastructure sectors, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Sept. 10.
Speaking at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit in Washington, D.C., Cairncross said ONCD intends to use the 60-day pilot to identify successful approaches that can be scaled in the water sector and replicated elsewhere.
“We’ve got other sectors that we’re going to move this sort of program into,” Cairncross said. “We’ll be announcing them soon. But water is a good start.”
Cairncross announced the Project Watershed 250 pilot on Aug. 31 alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The joint project will connect water and wastewater utilities across Texas with cybersecurity resources at no cost.
Speaking at today’s conference, Cairncross described the water sector as lagging behind other critical infrastructure sectors because of challenges including resources, capacity, and decentralized management.
Rather than pursuing a broad, nationwide solution from the outset, Cairncross said ONCD wants to identify a “specific, concrete solution” through the Project Watershed pilot and build from there.
Industry partners participating in the effort have committed to helping lower costs, deploy new technology, and increase cybersecurity capacity, he said.
“We put people together at a table and are operationalizing this,” Cairncross said. “Once we … go through a 60-day pilot, we’re going to find what has been successful, and we’re going to scale up that.”
Cairncross also offered an update on ONCD’s planned Cyber Academy, saying the office is moving the policy through development. Cairncross first teased the Cyber Academy in March, after the office released its National Cyber Strategy.
He said the initiative would combine elements of venture capital and other private-sector efforts with a service component, with the goal of encouraging people to serve the country, develop cybersecurity skills, and later pursue private-sector opportunities.
“We’re excited about it,” Cairncross said, adding that ONCD will have more to announce on the effort soon.