Notice2023-13043
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems
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Published
June 20, 2023
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Institute of Standards and Technology
Abstract
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites organizations to provide letters of interest describing products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project. This notice is the initial step for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in collaborating with technology companies to address cybersecurity challenges identified under the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project. Participation in the project is open to all interested organizations.
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 117 (Tuesday, June 20, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39827-39829]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-13043]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No.: 220208-0264]
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Cybersecurity
for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for
Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
invites organizations to provide letters of interest describing
products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security
platforms for the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A
Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and
Wastewater Systems project. This notice is the initial step for the
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in collaborating
with technology companies to address cybersecurity challenges
identified under the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector:
A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and
Wastewater Systems project. Participation in the project is open to all
interested organizations.
DATES: Collaborative activities will commence as soon as enough
completed and signed letters of interest have been returned to address
all the necessary components and capabilities, but no earlier than July
20, 2023.
ADDRESSES: The NCCoE is located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway,
Rockville, MD 20850. Letters of interest must be submitted to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#087f697c6d7a57666b6b676d4866617b7c266f677e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e19680958493be8f82828e84a18f889295cf868e97">[email protected]</span></a> or via hardcopy to National Institute of Standards
and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850.
Interested parties can access the letter of interest request by
visiting <a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a> and completing the letter of interest webform. NIST will
announce the completion of the selection of participants and inform the
public that it is no longer accepting letters of interest for this
project at <a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a>. Organizations whose letters of interest are accepted in
accordance with the process set forth in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
section of this notice will be asked to sign an NCCoE consortium
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST. An
NCCoE consortium CRADA template can be found at: <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/publications/other/nccoe-consortium-crada-example">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/publications/other/nccoe-consortium-crada-example</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James McCarthy via telephone at 301-
975-0228; by email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6a1d0b1e0f1835040909050f2a0403191e440d051c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5f283e2b3a2d00313c3c303a1f31362c2b71383029">[email protected]</span></a>; or by mail to National
Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca
Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the
Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical
Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater
Systems project are available at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
[[Page 39828]]
Background: The NCCoE, part of NIST, is a public-private
collaboration for accelerating the widespread adoption of integrated
cybersecurity tools and technologies. The NCCoE brings together experts
from industry, government, and academia under one roof to develop
practical, interoperable cybersecurity approaches that address the
real-world needs of complex Information Technology (IT) and Operational
Technology (OT) systems. By accelerating dissemination and use of these
integrated tools and technologies for protecting IT and OT assets, the
NCCoE will enhance trust in U.S. IT and OT communications, data, and
storage systems; reduce risk for companies and individuals using IT and
OT systems; and encourage development of innovative, job-creating
cybersecurity products and services.
Process: NIST is soliciting responses from all sources of relevant
security capabilities (see below) to enter into an NCCoE Cooperative
Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to provide products and
technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for
the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical
Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater
Systems project. The full project can be viewed at: <a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a>.
Interested parties can access the request for a letter of interest
template by visiting the project website at <a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a> and completing the
letter of interest webform. On completion of the webform, interested
parties will receive access to the letter of interest template, which
the party must complete, certify as accurate, and submit to NIST by
email or hardcopy. NIST will contact interested parties if there are
questions regarding the responsiveness of the letters of interest to
the project objective or requirements identified below. NIST will
select participants who have submitted complete letters of interest on
a first come, first served basis within each category of product
components or capabilities listed below up to the number of
participants in each category necessary to carry out this project. When
the project has been completed, NIST will post a notice on the
Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical
Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater
Systems project website at <a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a> announcing the next phase of the project and
informing the public that it will no longer accept letters of interest
for this project. There may be continuing opportunity to participate
even after initial activity commences. Selected participants will be
required to enter into an NCCoE consortium CRADA with NIST (for
reference, see ADDRESSES section above).
Project Objective: This project will develop example cybersecurity
solutions to protect the infrastructure in the operating environments
of Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) sector utilities. The increasing
adoption of network-enabled technologies by the sector merits the
development of best practices, guidance, and solutions to ensure that
the cybersecurity posture of facilities is safeguarded.
Critical infrastructure issues in the WWS sector present several
unique challenges. Utilities in the sector typically cover a wide
geographic area regarding piped distribution networks and
infrastructure together with centralized treatment operations. The
supporting operational technologies (OT) underpinning this
infrastructure are likely reliant on supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA) systems which provide data transmission across the
enterprise, sending sensor readings and signals in real time. These
systems also control the automated processes in the production
environment which is linked to the distribution network. Additionally,
many OT devices are converging upon information technology (IT)
capability with the advent of Industrial internet-of-Things (IIoT)
devices and platforms, such as cloud-based SCADA and smart monitoring.
This project will develop a reference design that demonstrates
practical solutions for water and wastewater utilities of all sizes.
The reference design will use commercially available products and
services to address four WWS cybersecurity challenges: asset
management, data integrity, remote access, and network segmentation.
The commercial products and services will be integrated into a
demonstration of the reference design. The project also initiates a
broad discussion with WWS sector stakeholders to identify commercial
solution providers.
This project will result in a publicly available NIST Cybersecurity
Practice Guide which will include a detailed implementation guide of
the practical steps needed to implement a cybersecurity reference
design that addresses these challenges.
Requirements for Letters of Interest: Each responding
organization's letter of interest should identify which security
platform component(s) or capability(ies) it is offering. Letters of
interest should not include company proprietary information, and all
components and capabilities must be commercially available. Components
are listed in section 3 of the Cybersecurity for the Water and
Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber
Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project description available at:
<a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a>.
Requested Capabilities
This project will employ products, provided by collaborating
vendors, that provide the following cybersecurity capabilities to
address the four scenarios described in section 2 of the Cybersecurity
for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for
Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems Project
Description.
<bullet> Asset Management: Asset management capabilities discover
and identify physical and virtual assets in the OT environment. These
assets may be geographically distributed and may be cloud-based. In
addition to network-connected assets, these capabilities should provide
a means to discover and identify assets connected by low-bandwidth
communications channels and disconnected assets. The asset management
capability maintains an inventory of known assets which contains
information such asset type, product version, and communication
protocols used. Asset management capabilities may provide automation to
establish and enforce a baseline security posture.
<bullet> Data Integrity: Data integrity capabilities protect data
and communications within the OT environment against improper
modification or destruction. Additionally, these capabilities monitor
the OT environment to detect potential integrity violations and
generate alerts to initiate any needed responses.
<bullet> Remote Access: Remote access capabilities provide entities
(people and systems) controlled access to OT assets from outside the OT
environment. These capabilities authenticate any entity seeking access,
allow only explicitly authorized access, control which actions are
allowed for each authorized entity, and maintain a record of all
actions attempted and completed by each entity.
<bullet> Network Segmentation: Network segmentation capabilities
provide logically isolated network subsets that can be managed more
efficiently and
[[Page 39829]]
effectively. Segmentation allows for a more detailed level of
authorization and access, visibility into network flows among critical
assets and infrastructure, and control of device management, and
minimizes the potential harm from threats by isolating them to a
limited part of the network.
In their letters of interest, responding organizations need to
acknowledge the importance of and commit to provide:
1. Access for all participants' project teams to component
interfaces and the organization's experts necessary to make functional
connections among security platform components.
2. Support for development and demonstration of the Cybersecurity
for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for
Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project, which
will be conducted in a manner consistent with the following standards
and guidance: FIPS 200, FIPS 201, SP 800-82 and SP 800-53, the NIST
Cybersecurity Framework, and the NIST Privacy Framework.
Additional details about the Cybersecurity for the Water and
Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber
Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project are available at
<a href="http://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities">www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/securing-water-and-wastewater-utilities</a>.
NIST cannot guarantee that all the products proposed by respondents
will be used in the demonstration. Each prospective participant will be
expected to work collaboratively with NIST staff and other project
participants under the terms of the NCCoE consortium CRADA in the
development of the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A
Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and
Wastewater Systems project. Prospective participants' contribution to
the collaborative effort will include assistance in establishing the
necessary interface functionality, connection and set-up capabilities
and procedures, demonstration harnesses, environmental and safety
conditions for use, integrated platform user instructions, and
demonstration plans and scripts necessary to demonstrate the desired
capabilities. Each participant will train NIST personnel, as necessary,
to operate its product in capability demonstrations. Following
successful demonstrations, NIST will publish a description of the
security platform and its performance characteristics sufficient to
permit other organizations to develop and deploy security platforms
that meet the security objectives of the Cybersecurity for the Water
and Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating
Cyber Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project. These descriptions
will be public information. Under the terms of the NCCoE consortium
CRADA, NIST will support development of interfaces among participants'
products by providing IT infrastructure, laboratory facilities, office
facilities, collaboration facilities, and staff support to component
composition, security platform documentation, and demonstration
activities.
The dates of the demonstration of Cybersecurity for the Water and
Wastewater Sector: A Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber
Risk in Water and Wastewater Systems project capability will be
announced on the NCCoE website at least two weeks in advance at <a href="https://nccoe.nist.gov/">https://nccoe.nist.gov/</a>. The expected outcome will demonstrate how the
components of the Cybersecurity for the Water and Wastewater Sector: A
Practical Reference Design for Mitigating Cyber Risk in Water and
Wastewater Systems project architecture can provide security
capabilities to mitigate identified risks related to data throughout
its lifecycle. Participating organizations will gain from the knowledge
that their products are interoperable with other participants'
offerings.
For additional information on the NCCoE governance, business
processes, and NCCoE operational structure, visit the NCCoE website
<a href="https://nccoe.nist.gov/">https://nccoe.nist.gov/</a>.
Alicia Chambers,
NIST Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2023-13043 Filed 6-16-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P
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