Short Takes – 11-30-23

2 municipal water facilities report falling to hackers in separate breaches. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) recently detected a cybersecurity incident affecting our business computer network,” an official wrote in an email. “Most of our business network has been restored. Our core water, wastewater, and solid waste services to our Member Cities and Customers have not been impacted by this incident, and we continue to provide those services as usual.” The official went on to say that phone systems remained offline. The district has engaged third-party forensic investigators to probe the extent of the breach.

CISA again prioritizes resilience in times of uncertainty for national chemical security following CFATS lapse. IndustrialCyber.co article. Pull quote: “Looking ahead, Murray said that while the CFATS program has lapsed, “we continue to offer expertise to chemical facilities on a voluntary basis through the ChemLock program, which is available to any facility with dangerous chemicals regardless of whether they were previously tiered under CFATS. Inspectors nationwide continue to offer on-site assessments and assistance, which chemical facilities may request via the ChemLock Services Request Form on the ChemLock homepage.””

Defense bill, passed 62 years in a row, faces partisan minefields in Senate, House. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““Increasingly, the NDAA has become the non-appropriations vehicle, Christmas tree vehicle of choice. Like, other than the [appropriations] bill, that’s the catch-all,” he said. “We talked about this a little bit at lunch today. We need to actually have the NDAA be about Defense authorization and not whatever somebody wants to dream up.””

Hazardous Materials: Streamlining Requirements for the Approval of Certain Energetic Materials [fireworks]. Federal Register PHMSA NPRM. Summary: “PHMSA proposes to amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations to revise the classification and approval process for certain low-hazard fireworks; to revise classification criteria for small arms cartridges to include tracer ammunition; to include the PHMSA portal as the method to submit applications for all explosives approvals; and to allow for voluntary termination of an explosive approval by the approval holder.”

To catch an error. ChemistryWorld.com article. The chemical version of measure twice, cut once. “Finally, when it is time to actually run the reaction, there is one more layer of checking. Prior to the drums being charged to the reactor, there is an identity check to make sure that the labels on the drums match what is called for in the batch record. In addition, we have a second person agree that the correct material is being charged to the reactor.”