{"id":57746,"date":"2024-11-24T15:27:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/volunteer-def-con-hackers-dive-into-americas-leaky-water-infrastructure\/"},"modified":"2024-11-24T15:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:27:12","slug":"volunteer-def-con-hackers-dive-into-americas-leaky-water-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/volunteer-def-con-hackers-dive-into-americas-leaky-water-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer DEF CON hackers dive into America’s leaky water infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

A plan for hackers to help secure America’s critical infrastructure has kicked off with six US water companies signing up to let coders kick the tires of their computer systems and fix any vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Launched<\/a> at this year’s DEF CON, the Franklin project is a scheme to shore up key systems by using the skills of top hackers. As the conference’s founder, Jeff Moss, explained to The Register<\/em> at the time, it’s an attempt not only to strengthen US resilience to online attacks, but also to chronicle what is being done in a yearly “Hacker’s Almanack” so that others can learn essential skills.<\/p>\n

Now the scheme is kicking off in earnest with a partnership between the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI) and the National Rural Water Association (NRWA). The organizations are deploying top coders to investigate the security of six water companies based in Utah, Vermont, Indiana, and Oregon, fix any issues, and then pass the knowledge on.<\/p>\n