Securing the Flow: A Comprehensive SCADA Assessment
Securing the Flow: A Comprehensive SCADA Assessment & Cyber Strategy for a Major Texas Water Provider
UTSI International was engaged by a Texas critical water infrastructure provider serving 18 municipalities, industrial complexes and more than 200,000+ residential customers across southeastern Texas to conduct a comprehensive SCADA Needs Assessment of their existing control systems, communications infrastructure, and cybersecurity posture.
Challenge
The existing SCADA architecture relied on a basic framework lacking the necessary security controls, processing performance, and system availability required for modern critical infrastructure. While functional on a day-to-day basis, the legacy environment did not utilize a structured, well-designed approach capable of mitigating modern cyber threats. This technical limitation was further compounded by a critical operational need: personnel desired significantly improved system availability and seamless, secure remote access for field users.
Solutions
Working directly with the client’s operations, IT, maintenance, and field teams, UTSI performed a full technical due diligence review and delivered prioritized findings and recommendations report covering:
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A modernized SCADA architecture roadmap aligned with ISA/IEC 62443 and NIST 800-82 standards
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Cybersecurity gap analysis and a formal Cyber Incident Response Plan (CIRP) framework
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Network segmentation and multi-factor authentication recommendations,
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Field PLC standardization strategy including recommendations for communications infrastructure improvements
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Disaster recovery site evaluation and selection guidance
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Alarm management rationalization and High-Performance HMI recommendations
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Long-term sustainability plan including recommendations for annual Table-Top Exercises (TTX) and third-party architecture reviews
Results
Client gained a clear, actionable path to modernize an aging, legacy SCADA platform into a secure, highly available, and future-ready critical infrastructure control environment — while significantly reducing cybersecurity exposure and improving operational visibility across their entire water transmission system.