Hunting Viruses in Your Water System

DEF CON Franklin and National Rural Water Association Launch Water Watch Center to Defend Utilities Against Foreign Hacks  

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of potentially the most widespread cyber attack by a nation state on U.S. water systems in history, DEF CON Franklin and the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) launched the Water Watch Center (WWC) today. The WWC gives small water utilities direct support to mitigate attacks, like the recently alleged Iranian hack.  The WWC improves utilities' cyber defenses, identifies attacks and mitigates breaches to ensure clean water reliably flows from millions of American faucets every day.

Under this new program, an initial set of five managed detection and response providers has joined forces with DEF CON Franklin and NRWA to deliver cyber services directly to small water utilities serving fewer than 10,000 people, which make up 91% of the approximately 50,000 community water systems in the country.  These providers, including Defendify, Legato Security, L1 Secure, Rapid7, and Sentinel Technologies, will exchange threat information through a dedicated collaboration mechanism and share that information with NRWA, which serves as the national hub.

"These leading cyber firms and NRWA are architecting a scalable cyber delivery model that has eluded water industry and national security officials to date," said Jake Braun, co-founder of DEF CON Franklin and former White House acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director. "Our incredible Franklin volunteers will support the effort to keep costs down for cash-strapped utilities fending off adversaries like the Iranian Red Guard or Chinese Military.  To further accelerate the effort, we hand-picked cyber providers who already support water utilities. These folks walk in the door knowing the intricacies of cybersecurity in a water utility environment."

This new program was announced during the annual DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, following a two-year effort in which DEF CON Franklin recruited a pool of nearly 450 volunteer cyber experts and paired many with water and wastewater utilities in Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.  That work strengthened defenses at individual utilities, however, it also laid bare the intractable problem of scaling security for 150,000 water and wastewater utilities.

Scaling Adoption
The Water Watch Center staff have also begun working with Cyber Maryland to identify and engage rural water utilities across the state of Maryland, to reach systems in states beyond the original seven and, in particular, those civilian utilities supporting military and intelligence assets.  "Maryland is home to some of the nation's most important national security assets, and resilient water infrastructure is fundamental to those missions," said Roger Austin, Chair of the Cyber Maryland Board. "We're excited to help connect Maryland's water utilities with the resources and expertise they need to strengthen their cybersecurity."

"DEF CON Franklin spent two years with volunteer hackers in the trenches with under resourced water utilities analyzing data and testing hypotheses, many of which didn't work," said DEF CON Founder Jeff Moss. "The result is a truly innovative, grassroots public policy program that only the hacker community would have come up with."

"NRWA is excited to establish the Water Watch Center to provide the tools our sector needs to assess, prepare for, and respond to cyberattacks," said NRWA Chief Executive Officer Matthew Holmes. "Water systems are facing increasing cybersecurity risks, and with the Water Watch Center, we're providing rural systems with trusted resources to secure our nation's water infrastructure."

Multiple philanthropic and government organizations are supporting the stand-up of the effort. "Rural water systems keep small-town America running, and the folks who operate them shouldn't have to face foreign hackers alone," said Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, who provided seed investment for the initiative. "The volunteers and water operators behind the Water Watch Center are doing real cyber civil defense, and I'm glad to support their efforts to help keep our nation's critical infrastructure safe and secure."

Former National Cyber Director Chris Inglis applauds the effort: "This initiative lies at the vanguard of the private-public collaboration essential to securing our life line services. Active public-private collaboration is critical to our national security and this is an important step to realizing the vision of forcing adversaries to 'beat all of us to beat one of us."

Bleeding Edge Research
The Water Watch Center is working with Vanderbilt University to apply research from the DARPA Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environment (CASTLE) program. This partnership will aim to create "digital twins" for a select few WWC water and wastewater system environments. Then, researchers will deploy red and blue team agents in these environments, in order to rigorously test and refine automated defensive approaches against cyber attacks - ultimately with the goal of deploying AI defensive solutions to water and wastewater systems nationwide.

Dr. Daniel Balasubramanian, the PI of Vanderbilt's team on CASTLE, is excited to apply his team's expertise on building digital twins to the water domain. "By leveraging digital twins, we can safely emulate these complex environments and train AI-driven defensive agents to detect and neutralize attacks. Our ultimate goal is to translate this rigorous testing into robust, real-world protections for water systems across the nation."

About DEF CON Franklin
Named after Benjamin Franklin — among a litany of better-known accomplishments, also founded America's first volunteer fire department — for his commitment to science and civics. DEF CON Franklin's mission is to help put out cyber "fires" for vulnerable critical infrastructure, starting with water systems, wastewater facilities, and schools across the nation. The project also publishes the Hackers' Almanack, turning insights from DEF CON's annual conference to better U.S. cybersecurity policy. DEF CON Franklin is a project of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, where Jake Braun serves as the Executive Director.

About the National Rural Water Association
The National Rural Water Association (NRWA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to training, supporting, and promoting the water and wastewater professionals who serve small and rural communities across the country. NRWA provides nationwide training and technical assistance through its affiliated State Rural Water Associations that currently have over 31,000 utility system members across all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Rural Water training and technical assistance covers every aspect of operating, managing, and financing water and wastewater utilities.

For more information or to be connected with a hacker or utility, visit defconfranklin.com.

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SOURCE University of Chicago Cyber Policy Initiative