Parsons Joins Federal Water Cybersecurity Pilot for PLC/SCADA
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Parsons Joins Federal Water Cybersecurity Pilot for PLC/SCADA
The industrial automation sector is watching a decisive shift in how critical infrastructure is defended. Water and wastewater utilities, long reliant on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) networks, now sit squarely in the crosshairs of state-sponsored and criminal threat actors. Parsons' entry into the federal Project Watershed 250 pilot sig
Detail
Water systems were once considered low-value targets. That assumption has collapsed. Attacks on treatment plants, pump stations and remote valve networks have demonstrated that compromised PLCs can alter chemical dosing, disable alarms and disrupt service.
The 2021 intrusion at a Florida water treatment facility remains a defining case study: an attacker adjusted sodium hydroxide levels through remote access to the plant's control system. The episode underscored a hard truth , operational technology (OT) is now the front line.
Water utilities operate some of the most fragmented OT estates in critical infrastructure, combining decades-old PLCs with modern SCADA gateways. This heterogeneity is precisely what makes engineering expertise , rather than just IT security , essential to hardening these networks.
Parsons brings deep operational experience across water and wastewater infrastructure, including PLC programming, SCADA network architecture, pump station controls and treatment facility automation. The pilot merges that domain knowledge with cybersecurity disciplines to harden utility infrastructure.
Unlike purely IT-driven security programs, Project Watershed 250 treats control loops, ladder logic and field device communications as assets that must be protected end to end.
• PLC configuration and firmware integrity across water and wastewater treatment sites.
• SCADA network segmentation and secure remote access for pump stations and valves.
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