The White House has launched a new program to provide water systems with cybersecurity support and resources.
Project Watershed 250 will be piloted in the State of Texas, governor Greg Abbott and White House national cyber director Sean Cairncross jointly announced on August 31 during a roundtable event in San Antonio.
The program will initially provide water and wastewater utilities with federal and private sector cyber-defense resources at no cost. This includes rural water providers who often lack the resources to defend themselves from growing cyber threats, particularly those coming from Chinese or Iranian nation-state actors.
A number of big-name cybersecurity companies will be providing expertise and resources in conjunction with the Office of the National Cyber Director as part of Project Watershed 250. These include Microsoft, Google, AWS, Cloudflare, Palo Alto Networks, Forescout and Dragos.
The six-month pilot in Texas will see these resources deployed to identify vulnerabilities and implement stronger defenses.
It will be supported by Texas Cyber Command, which was set up in 2025 to prepare for and respond to cyber threats across the state.
Cairncross said during the roundtable that lessons from the Texas pilot will inform potential expansions of Project Watershed 250 to other states and rural communities, according to an Axios report.
Iran Linked to Growing Targeting of Water Systems and CNI
The program launch follows a wave of cyber-attacks targeting water and wastewater utility providers across the US.
The FBI warned on July 30 that malicious cyber actors are conducting cyber-attacks targeting operational technology (OT) devices in these systems, resulting in operational disruptions. The agency revealed it had received incident reports from 27 providers in at least seven states.
These attacks have been linked to Iranian state-backed groups.
In the UK, it was reported in August 2026 that Iranian hackers managed to shut down a power plant for several days during July.
It’s claimed that the attack happened at the same time as a large-scale operation targeting US water plants. It has not been revealed which plant was targeted.