March 21, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center® (MS-ISAC®) and the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC) announced a new partnership today to improve cross-sector collaboration between the water and wastewater sector and the U.S. state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government sectors.

CIS® (Center for Internet Security, Inc.) is home to the MS-ISAC, and both are headquartered in New York. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has designated MS-ISAC as the key cybersecurity resource for state, local tribal and territorial governments, including Chief Information Security Officers, Homeland Security Advisors, and fusion centers.

Both MS-ISAC and WaterISAC are recognized for helping their respective members improve cybersecurity, and, by joining forces, they believe even more is possible.

“Cross-sector collaboration is critically important, not only for sector security but also for national security, says WaterISAC Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei. “We’re excited about what will come from this new partnership.” 

“This agreement between MS-ISAC and WaterISAC means greater information sharing and more insight into current cybersecurity threats to those responsible for our nation’s water infrastructure,” said Thomas Duffy, MS-ISAC Chair, and CIS Senior Vice President of Operations and Services.

The new partnership reflects the interdependences between the two sectors. In many cases enterprise IT cybersecurity at water and wastewater utilities and other government services are the responsibility of SLTT governments. Meanwhile, water and wastewater systems provide SLTT government offices with safe drinking water, wastewater removal and treatment, and water for cooling.

Leveraging each other’s strengths, the WaterISAC and MS-ISAC will collaborate to monitor, analyze, and notify members of cybersecurity risks, vulnerabilities, and threats. The goal of the partnership is to enhance the cybersecurity of their respective members by:

• Sharing intelligence, 
• Conducting joint analyses, and 
• Contributing to each other’s events and products.

WaterISAC Contact: [email protected]

WaterISAC’s mission is to help water and wastewater utilities protect against and recover from physical and cyber security threats by providing them with alerts, analysis and mitigation resources. WaterISAC members include 2,600 water sector personnel across several hundred utilities and other organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

CIS (Center for Internet Security, Inc.) is a forward-thinking, non-profit entity that harnesses the power of a global IT community to safeguard private and public organizations against cyber threats. The CIS Controls™ and CIS Benchmarks™ are the global standard and recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data against the most pervasive attacks. Both are available for free download at www.CISecurity.org. These proven guidelines are continuously refined and verified by a volunteer, global community of experienced IT professionals. Our CIS Hardened Images™ are virtual machine emulations preconfigured to provide secure, on-demand, and scalable computing environments in the cloud. CIS is home to both the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center™ (EI-ISAC®), which supports the cybersecurity needs of U.S. State, Local and Territorial elections offices. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org or follow us on Twitter: @CISecurity.

MS-ISAC is part of CIS® (Center for Internet Security, Inc.) a non-profit entity that harnesses the power of a global IT community to safeguard private and public organizations against cyber threats. CIS is also home to the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center™, which supports the cybersecurity needs of U.S. State, Local and Territorial elections offices. To learn more, visit CISecurity.org or follow us on Twitter: @CISecurity.

# # #