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# Cloud CISO Perspectives: Tips on securing the water sector in the AI era

**[Google Cloud](https://daily.dev/sources/gcp)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Google Cloud's Cloud CISO Perspectives newsletter covers water sector cybersecurity, highlighting increased targeting of internet-connected PLCs at U.S. water utilities amid geopolitical tensions. Chris Sistrunk and Stephanie Kiel outline fundamentals for resource-constrained utilities: asset inventory, credential hygiene, 3-2-1 backups, network segmentation, emergency planning aligned with FEMA NIMS, and third-party vendor access controls. It introduces Mandiant's 'Theory of 99,' noting 99% of OT-impacting intrusions occur on IT workstations/servers before reaching OT devices, positioning AI as a force multiplier for defenders. The roundup also links a State of AI Infrastructure report, Wiz research on cloud risk and AI infrastructure honeypots, a Rust supply chain attack on the arrayref crate tied to DPRK campaigns, and podcast episodes on AI-driven vulnerability patching and research.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/cloud-ciso-perspectives-tips-on-securing-water-sector-ai-era>

## Questions this post answers

### What is Mandiant's Theory of 99 in OT security?

It states that in intrusions deep enough to impact operational technology, 99% of compromised systems, malware, forensics work, and detection opportunities involve computer workstations and servers rather than the physical control devices themselves, with 99% of intrusion dwell time occurring in commercial off-the-shelf IT equipment before any Purdue level 0-1 devices are affected. This implies defenders can focus AI-driven monitoring on the IT layer to catch threats before they reach critical physical processes.

_Teams building AI-augmented OT defenses can track threat research and analysis like this on daily.dev._

### What basic security steps should water utilities take to protect PLCs from cyberattacks?

Water utilities should inventory assets to find internet-exposed control systems, replace default credentials, harden firewalls, follow the 3-2-1 backup rule, apply network segmentation with multifactor authentication and read-only access where possible, integrate cyber-incident planning into existing FEMA NIMS and ICS4ICS response structures, and audit third-party vendor remote access with MFA and logging requirements.

_Security teams hardening critical infrastructure can follow ongoing OT security guidance on daily.dev._

### What Rust crate was recently hit by a supply chain attack linked to DPRK campaigns?

Malicious versions of the arrayref Rust crate, along with other packages, executed a backdoor at compile time, and the attack infrastructure showed significant overlap with recent DPRK-linked supply chain attacks, including campaigns involving Mastra and axios.

_Developers vetting Rust dependencies for supply chain risk can follow these disclosures on daily.dev._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

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---

Tags: [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#ai-security](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-security)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/cloud-ciso-perspectives-tips-on-securing-the-water-sector-in-the-ai-era-knlcc0zbg)

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