Wastewater Visibility News
Cybersecurity Learning Opportunities
January 6, 2026
Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Wastewater Visibility News
Opportunities for cybersecurity assessment and education for publicly owned treatment works, shared from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection January 2026 O&M Newsletter.
- More about Project Franklin: https://defconfranklin.com
- Read more from the EPA regarding Cybersecurity in the water sector: https://www.epa.gov/cyberwater
No-Cost Cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessments for POTWs.
Cyber-attacks against water and wastewater infrastructure across the country are increasing. Even small municipalities are being targeted. Is your plant ready for a cyber incident that could take out your SCADA system and jeopardize plant operations?
A valuable tool for evaluating the cyber hygiene of your facility plant is to conduct a vulnerability assessment. A vulnerability assessment is a systematic examination to determine the adequacy of security and privacy measures by identifying security holes that may be exploited on a computer or network. Several No-Cost options exist for municipal wastewater facilities to participate in Cyber assessments by trained professionals:
- Maine National Guard (MENG) is providing free vulnerability assessments to POTWs. Please contact kevin.l.moncrieffe.mil@army.mil if you would like to participate.
- National Rural Water Association (NRWA) is joining forces with the Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI) to offer a first-of-its-kind, completely free cyber volunteer taskforce to assist small and rural water & wastewater communities in protecting critical infrastructure, The initiative is named the Project Franklin, in honor of US founding father Benjamin Franklin. To learn more about the program, contact Aaron Gaylord aaron.gaylord@mainerwa.org and John DeGour john.degour@nrwa.org.
- EPA’s Water Sector Cybersecurity Evaluation Program. EPA offers free assessments to public drinking water plants (DWP) and wastewater facilities. The evaluation provides the assessed utility with a risk mitigation template to help understand discovered cybersecurity vulnerabilities and provide guidance on enhancing overall cybersecurity posture. Click Here for more information on EPA’s vulnerability assessment program.
Assessments are completely voluntary and confidential with no information shared with regulatory authorities.
You can also sign up for free vulnerability scanning for water and wastewater utilities offered by EPA. More information can be found at Free Cyber Vulnerability Scanning for Water Utilities.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
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