Bipartisan lawmakers introduce bill to bolster water system protections against hackers
EXCLUSIVE – Bipartisan lawmakers are introducing a bill on Capitol Hill Thursday focused on protecting the country's water systems from foreign hackers, just months after China admitted behind closed doors that it was responsible for a series of attacks on U.S. infrastructure.
Senators Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., authored the Water Cybersecurity Enhancement Act to help protect public water systems and respond to cyberattacks, which have become more frequent in recent years.
"In Arizona, we know better than most the importance of safe and secure access to water. But adversaries also understand the importance and are increasingly trying to undermine our water security," Gallego said. "It is critical that we ensure our public water systems have the resources they need to prevent and respond to cyberattacks. That's exactly what this bipartisan, commonsense bill does."
The bill would extend and expand a portion of the Safe Drinking Water Act, called the Drinking Water Infrastructure Risk and Resilience Program, to provide technical assistance and grants to community water systems that can be used for training and guidance on cyberattack protections and responses.
Cotton said cyberattacks on public infrastructure are a growing threat.
"This bipartisan bill will strengthen our ability to protect essential services and support local water utilities in building stronger cyber defenses," he added.
The bill comes less than a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese officials acknowledged behind closed doors in December that their government was responsible for a series of attacks on U.S. infrastructure.
In the exclusive report, those who spoke on condition of anonymity claimed Chinese officials connected the cyberattacks on U.S. ports, airports, utilities and other important targets to America's support for Taiwan.
The report noted that Biden administration officials learned of the attacks first hand during a summit in Geneva, as their Chinese counterparts blamed the campaign, referred to as Volt Typhoon, on a criminal organization.
Chinese officials also accused the U.S. of blaming China based on their imagination.
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital earlier this month it had made clear to Beijing that the U.S. will continue to take actions in response to Chinese malicious cyber activity targeting the U.S.
"Chinese cyber threats are some of the gravest and most persistent threats to U.S. national security," the spokesperson said. "The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to safeguard U.S. critical infrastructure from irresponsible and reckless cyberattacks from Beijing. President Trump is committed to protecting the American people and U.S. critical infrastructure from these threats."
The Chinese Embassy told FOX Business that China "firmly opposes" the smear attacks against it without any factual basis.
The Biden administration warned state leaders in March 2024 that cyberattacks by hackers linked to Iran and China could take down water systems across the U.S. if cybersecurity measures were not taken as a precaution.
Then Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael S. Regan and Jake Sullivan, the assistant to Biden for national security affairs, said in an email to state governors that cyberattacks were targeting water and wastewater systems throughout the U.S.
In the letter, the two Biden administration officials said the attacks could disrupt clean and safe drinking water and impose significant costs on affected communities.
In January 2024, Russian hackers launched an attack on the water system in Muleshoe, Texas.
The hack caused the small Texas town's water sytem to overflow and within two hours sent tens of thousands of gallons of water flowing out of the town's water tower. Muleshoe was one of three small towns in the rural Texas Panhandle targeted by a Russian hacktivist group.
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told legislators in a letter that the cybersecurity firm Mandiant attributed the attack on Muleshoe to Sandworm, which is believed to be connected to Russia's spy agency, the GRU.
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