Cth steps up efforts to secure water assets against cyber attack

Local
councils owning and operating water and wastewater assets are being asked to
take part in a voluntary national exercise to enhance cyber security
resilience.

The exercise, to be coordinated by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), will test and strengthen arrangements for responding to cyber incidents.

ACSC head
Abigail Bradshaw says “a cyber disrupting critical water infrastructure could have
serious impacts on the safety, social or economic wellbeing of Australians”.

Scheduled
to take place in August 2021, the two-day exercise will provide opportunities
for organisations and personnel to:

• strengthen
  and validate their cyber security response and recovery plans, including
  interoperability with other organisation and jurisdictional arrangements;
• practise
  technical, operational and strategic capabilities to respond to cyber
  incidents, including decision-making;
• improve
  communications with their partners and the public;
• increase
  their knowledge of current cyber threats, potential consequences and actors
  targeting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of water sector
  organisations’ information and systems;
• validate
  and inform training; and
• increase
  exercise management capabilities.

Registration for the exercises closes on Thursday, 24 September 2020, with a pre-registration information session to be held online using GovTeams on Monday, 21 September from 1-2pm AEST.

Email the ACSC’s national exercise program team at asd.acsc.nep@defence.gov.au for more information about how local councils can be involved. Or go to the ACSC’s website.