The Water Resources Recovery Facility of Murfreesboro (MWRRF) is responsible for providing clean, safe water to area residents, and ensuring that water eventually deposited back into the West Fork Stones River meets environmental standards. In a system responsible for processing 16 million gallons of water each day, a single hack on a device or computer could taint the water for humans and negatively impact river organisms by disrupting the environmental balance. This week, we announced our partnership with the MWRRF, to protect their digitized systems from dangerous cyberattacks. 

In 2018, America’s Water Infrastructure Act was put in place. The Act states that water utilities must develop emergency response plans that address cybersecurity threats, and submit their cybersecurity strategy and practices to ensure safety of their organization and consumers.The MWRRF’s cybersecurity commitments demonstrates the timeliness of updated, adequate cybersecurity, and serves as a call to action for other water utilities nationwide. 

MWRRF is using the decentralized Xage Fabric to secure both operational and information technology systems, noting the benefit of a cybersecurity solution that scales as their operations do. Further, the Xage solution ensures that both newer devices, as well as older, legacy systems, have adequate protection, and that the water system meets compliance for America’s Water Infrastructure Act. The “Kemuri Water Company” hack in 2016 demonstrated such a need, noting that some devices employed in the system dated back to 1988, and highlighted the difficulty of securing older devices, especially when combined with newer systems. 

The MWRRF utilizes programmable logic controllers (PLCs), connected data systems, smart sensors, valves, and other devices (including employee laptops) to efficiently and safely treat potentially contaminated water. Xage’s Fabric provides MWRRF with a single easy-to-use application to protect access to all applications and devices across the operation. Xage is ensuring that the MWRRF can maintain an efficient, accurate approach to water purification and data integrity, by providing safe role-based access control and edge-to-edge security for all devices, no matter the type, age, or location. 

Providing comprehensive cybersecurity to digitized devices via the Xage Security Fabric means that the Water Resources Recovery Facility can continue to scale their two decades of work as the source of potable water in the area, and show their customers that they are dedicated to maintaining standards while improving processes and infrastructure.