Halifax Water

Stephanie LeBlanc

Cyber Convergence Authority

Silos. Yes, they exist in most organizations, but how can we break them down? The key is to focus on the collective strengths and address any weaknesses. For Halifax Water, this approach united the forces of Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT) to ward off the threat of cybercrime.

Traditionally, IT and OT have worked independently at Halifax Water with separate policies, procedures, and tool suites. While IT focused on networks, encryption, securing endpoints, and data for the whole organization, OT managed radio communications, industrial networking practices, sensors, and programming logic controllers used throughout water and wastewater infrastructure.

Both groups worked separately yet effectively to support and protect Halifax Water’s various technologies. However, as threats from cybercrime became more sophisticated, these silos made it clear that gaps were starting to emerge.

It is no secret that threats from cybercrime have gained strength and become more agile. These cyber-attacks are becoming highly sophisticated, cunning, and frequent. It is now an industry, a source of millions of dollars in funding, and a strategic weapon for many nation-states.

With the threat of cybercrime increasing, Halifax Water developed and implemented a two-step plan in 2022. First, a Senior Manager of Information and Technology Services role was created with a focus on bringing Information (IT), Operations (OT), and Engineering Information Technology (EIT) teams together. Secondly, a Cybersecurity Program was designed to help converge IT & OT & EIT through a designed strategy that allows the IT and OT teams to execute a plan.

In developing the cybersecurity program, the strategy leveraged the recommendations provided by two external audit assessments. This also allowed the IT & OT teams to share best practices and combine policy, procedures, and tool suites. In addition, it enabled centralized monitoring from the Cybersecurity program level.

“We can build on our collective strengths and converge silos to address potential weaknesses through a more focused approach to cybersecurity”

The first stage of the cybersecurity program started with an audit by an independent third-party contractor. This resulted in 100 recommendations and constituted 17 projects and a 3-year remediation timeline.

The program also faced some initial challenges as the threat landscape from cybercrime continued to morph and adapt. In contrast, Halifax Water continued to supply and safeguard sustainable, high-quality water services. While the program used predictive project management methodology, it prevented the necessary agility in the face of new threats from cybercrime. As a result, the team did a brainstorming session that set aside project management methodology and focused on the top three items that could be actioned immediately.

Through this exercise, the team quickly identified the top 10 priority tasks for the program and realized they needed to shift to an Agile project management methodology. This method allows Halifax Water to focus on the highest priority recommendations and adapt quickly as cyber threats shift.

This method was put to the test in March 2023 when the Municipal Auditor General conducted an audit of our program. This audit resulted in additional findings and recommendations, which were easily prioritized and put into sprints for remediation. The program is now executing 147 recommendations, with all the municipal audit recommendations expected to be substantially completed by September 2024.

Based on the number of actions and the need to track progress, a Cybersecurity dashboard was created to help keep the executive team and Halifax Water Board of Commissioners up to date. Powered by Microsoft’s Power BI, this dashboard shows progress against all auditor recommendations budgets and highlights risks and issues to the program.

With cybercrime ever increasing, it is no longer a matter of “if” but “when” a breach will happen. For Halifax Water, we can build on our collective strengths and converge silos to address potential weaknesses through a more focused approach to cybersecurity - One Vision, One Team, One Water.