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Chairman Capito leads hearing on water infrastructure cybersecurity challenges
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led a hearing on cybersecurity challenges impacting American water infrastructure.
Capito highlighted threats from cyberattacks linked to Iran, China and Russia targeting the nation’s 170,000 water and wastewater utilities. Attacks can compromise customer data or gain access to operational systems and manipulate chemical levels to dangerous amounts.
Key challenges include legacy systems difficult to maintain, workforce shortages and poor cybersecurity hygiene. In 2024, the EPA found water systems using single logins for all employees and failing to change default passwords.
Capito stressed that solutions must be tailored to utilities of different sizes rather than one-size-fits-all federal mandates that could burden smaller systems.
“Building and maintaining resilience against cyber threats is not a one-and-done event—it is ongoing and ever-evolving. I look forward to learning how we can be better partners with our water utilities to identify cybersecurity threats and provide a flexible toolkit going forward.” – Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)