California Water and Wastewater District – FORTINET Case Study
Key Takeaways
⇨ Enhanced Visibility and Security: The district gained critical visibility into its network infrastructure, which was previously a "black box," by implementing Fortinet solutions, allowing non-technical staff to monitor and manage OT devices effectively.
⇨ Improved Operational Efficiency: With Fortinet’s integrated solutions, the district can now troubleshoot network issues quickly, reducing the risk of unplanned OT downtime and ensuring safer water services for residents.
⇨ User-Friendly and Reliable: Fortinet's ecosystem proved to be user-friendly for non-cybersecurity experts while providing robust, enterprise-grade security and network management, increasing the district’s confidence in its security posture.
Most residents of U.S. cities and towns are fortunate enough to take local water and wastewater service for granted. When we turn on a tap, we expect water to flow likewise when we flush a toilet or run water down a drain. But for the agencies that
provide these services, keeping water moving is a complex business. They rely on physical operational technology (OT) devices that require reliable Ethernet network connectivity to generate alerts for any process anomalies that might impact the cleanliness, safety, and availability of the water they supply.
“In an IT setting, if something goes wrong and systems shut down, users may get upset because they cannot access their email,” says Web Jessup, CEO of JEGO Systems, a Roseville, California–based systems integrator that specializes in cybersecurity, networking, infrastructure, and related services for water and wastewater districts. “By contrast, the shutdown of an OT system may put customers’ health, or even their lives, at risk,” he continues.
One example widely reported in the media in 2021 was an incident in a Florida town in which an individual inexplicably changed the chlorine levels at a water treatment plant. While monitoring the process through the human-machine interface (HMI), the plant’s operations team caught the problem in time to correct it before any damage was done. In the alternative scenario—had the devices not provided this level of visibility and had the staff not recognized the problem right away—hundreds of thousands of local residents could have been harmed.
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