Israel’s water system came under major attacks last year by what foreign intelligence sources described as an attempt by Iran to disrupt the country’s critical infrastructure. The apparent goal of the attacks was to raise the level of chlorine in the water supply by changing the logic of the Programmable Logic Controller without raising any alarms. These attacks, together with other attacks on US water facilities, highlighted the vulnerability of global water infrastructure and the necessity for independent and reliable monitoring solutions.
As a result, the Israel Water Authority decided to strengthen the cyber defenses of the country’s water system. Now, the authority announces the selection of Israel’s SIGA OT Solutions and its SigaGuard system to counter cyber-threats to the machinery and equipment that comprise the critical infrastructure which operates in the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technologies (OT) environments. SigaGuard also deals with ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure, which are even a more common threat these days.
The long-overlooked problem of cyber and ransomware threats against water utilities and other critical infrastructure has become a major concern worldwide in recent years as the number of attacks continues to increase rapidly.
The Israel Water Authority's decision to go with SigaGuard, together with the Security Operations Center (SOC) service provider Cysol Networks, followed a successful pilot that tested the connection of several of the country’s regional water and sewage utilities with the newly established SOC for defending against cyber-attacks on Israel’s water infrastructure. The setting up of the SOC was accelerated in light of last year’s attempted cyber-attacks in order to provide continuous monitoring directly from Level 0 – where the electrical signals of the national water system are located. Last month, four prominent Israeli regional water utilities were linked to the SOC using the SigaGuard solution.
