Water Cyber Shield Act introduced to protect U.S. water systems

Senators Adam Schiff and Amy Klobuchar have introduced the Water Cyber Shield Act, a legislative effort to strengthen cybersecurity protections for U.S. drinking water and wastewater systems. The bill follows a series of coordinated cyberattacks targeting water utilities across at least 12 states.

The proposed legislation would grant the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explicit authority to conduct cybersecurity assessments, mandate corrective actions for identified vulnerabilities, and establish tiered security standards in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

To support these efforts, the act would authorize $300 million annually for water infrastructure upgrades through the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds. Additionally, the bill would require large systems to include cyber risk assessments in their resilience planning and extend mandatory federal cyber incident reporting requirements to state and locally owned systems that were previously exempt. Smaller systems would be granted priority for federal financial assistance and greater regulatory flexibility.