Information Shield Streamlines Compliance with new EPA Water Cyber Requirements

Information Shield Enables Public Water Systems to Quickly Build and Validate a Cyber Program to pass annual audits

HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES, August 22, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Information Shield - a leading provider of cyber security compliance software – today announced support for new cyber security requirements established by the EPA. The EPA recently announced guidelines that require all public water utilities to perform cyber security audits as part of the annual “sanitary survey”. Information Shield has added pre-built EPA Control Baselines to dramatically simplify the building, documentation and maintenance of a cyber program for water utilities.

"Thousands of public and private utilities that provide safe drinking water must now consider cyber security as a top IT priority," said David Lineman, CEO of Information Shield. "Many of these organizations do not have the staff or resources needed to develop and deploy a program from scratch. Using ComplianceShield, water utilities can begin building and documenting key elements of an EPA-compliant system in minutes instead of weeks or months.”

About the EPA Cyber Security Requirements

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a memorandum in March 2023 to require public water systems (PWS) to adopt better cyber security. The assessment of cyber risks will now be included as part of “sanitary surveys”, which are existing periodic audits of water systems. The new EPA requirements generally align to key cyber security practices for protecting information and systems. To comply, each PWS must adopt a written information security program that addresses key cyber security practices. According to the EPA memorandum and Press Release:

Cybersecurity represents a substantial and increasing threat to the water sector, given the relative ease of access to critical water treatment systems from the internet. Currently, many water systems do not implement cybersecurity practices. Efforts to improve cybersecurity through voluntary measures have yielded minimal progress to protect the nations vitally important drinking water systems. [EPA Memorandum, March 2023]

Key Features to Enable EPA Cyber Security Compliance

The following features enable organizations to streamline EPA Cyber Compliance:

1. Complete EPA Policy Library - A complete library of information security policy templates that address all the key EPA requirements, including account management, data security, device security, third-party risk, governance, training and incident response.

2. EPA Cyber Control Baseline - The Baseline Template is a pre-built set of EPA cyber Controls that can be tracked, implemented and validated.

3. Compliance Management Platform – Enable full management accountability in a simple, streamlined platform. Easily track the status and evidence of the cyber program to validate compliance.

4. Secure Information Sharing – Secure sharing of control and compliance evidence with third-parties via auditor portal.

5. User Awareness Training - Integrated security awareness and training courses to address the Governance and Training requirement.
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6. Vendor Risk Management – Full set of policies, templates and functions for supply chain risk management.

7. Incident Management - Integrated policies and processes to support incident management and response.

A free trial or live demo of ComplianceShield is available by registering at the Information Shield web site.

About Information Shield

Information Shield has provided information security policy and compliance products to over 10,000 organizations in 60 countries. Recognized as the “Gold Standard” security policy reference by information security professionals, Information Shield provides companies with an easy, affordable tool to rapidly demonstrate compliance and reduce cyber risk. Organizations can learn more and request a free trial at https://www.informationshield.com

David Lineman
Information Shield
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