Forescout Partners with the White House and the State of Texas for Project Watershed 250 to Give Water Utilities World-Class Cyber Defense Capabilities

Forescout to provide continuous monitoring, asset visibility, adversary-focused assessments, and AI-enabled defense capabilities

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forescout Technologies, Inc., a cybersecurity company focused on asset intelligence, exposure management, and network security, today announced its participation in Project Watershed 250, a first-of-its-kind initiative launched in partnership with the White House, the State of Texas, water utilities and leading technology providers to help strengthen cybersecurity for water and wastewater systems.

Water and wastewater utilities face a rapidly evolving threat landscape, with cyberattacks increasingly targeting the operational technology (OT) systems that support treatment, distribution, and essential public services. The consequences of a successful cyberattack on water utilities can extend beyond operational disruption to impact public health, community safety, and economic stability.

As part of Project Watershed 250, Forescout will provide participating utilities with:

• Continuous monitoring and asset visibility
• Adversary-focused assessments
• Vulnerability prioritization and remediation workflows
• Network segmentation
• AI-enabled defense capabilities

By enabling utilities to validate real-world risk, identify vulnerabilities and exposed assets, and strengthen resilience across cyber-physical environments, Forescout is helping establish a scalable framework for protecting critical infrastructure nationwide.

"Project Watershed 250 is an important step toward addressing the growing cyber risk to our water infrastructure and a strong example of what can be achieved through public-private partnership," said Barry Mainz, Chief Executive Officer of Forescout. "Water utilities operate some of the most complex cyber-physical environments in our critical infrastructure, yet many – particularly smaller and rural operators – lack the staffing and resources of large enterprises to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. By bringing together government, utilities and technology providers, this initiative creates a practical model for proactive defense and long-term resilience. Project Watershed 250 is built on the idea that water security is national security. Protecting water infrastructure means protecting public safety, economic stability, and the essential services Americans depend on every day."

A New Approach to Securing Water Infrastructure

Unlike traditional cybersecurity programs that often focus on isolated technologies or point-in-time assessments, Project Watershed 250 takes a lifecycle approach to cyber risk reduction, helping utilities:

• Understand their cyber terrain
• Validate real-world attack paths
• Prioritize remediation
• Enforce containment policies
• Use AI-enabled capabilities to strengthen defense

The initiative analyzes risk from an adversary’s perspective, tracing potential pathways from the public internet into operational technology environments through a structured methodology that combines external attack surface analysis, active validation, and passive OT assessment. It is specifically tailored to the complex cyber-physical environments that water utilities operate, spanning enterprise IT networks, operational technology, industrial control systems, SCADA environments, treatment facilities, pump stations, and remote telemetry.

Forescout’s Expertise in Securing Government and Critical Infrastructure

For more than 20 years, Forescout has helped federal, state, and local government agencies secure some of the world’s most complex critical infrastructure environments. Today, more than 70 U.S. federal entities, over 85% of U.S. federal executive departments, and eight of the top 10 Fortune 500 utilities companies rely on Forescout to help secure IT, OT, IoT, and IoMT environments.

"Water and wastewater operators provide one of our most essential public services, often while working with limited cybersecurity resources," said Mike Walsh, President of Forescout Government Systems. "Project Watershed 250 is about helping those organizations gain access to capabilities that have traditionally been out of reach. Forescout is proud to support this important initiative. We can help operators understand what is connected, validate real-world risk and take action before a cyber incident becomes a physical consequence."

To learn more about the cyber threats facing critical water infrastructure, read the analysis from Forescout Research – Vedere Labs of the July attacks on U.S. water systems and the role exposed devices can play in enabling adversary access.

Learn more about how the Forescout Vistaro™ platform supports public sector agencies and critical infrastructure operators with continuous visibility and monitoring, real-time risk management, and unified control across every device, connection, and environment.

About Forescout

As AI-driven vulnerability discovery and exploitation accelerate attack velocity to machine speed, Forescout is a foundational cyber defense layer that allows organizations to segment and isolate compromised systems, block lateral movement, and automate response across IT, OT, IoT, and IoMT environments. The Forescout Vistaro™ platform, powered by agentic AI and enhanced with Vedere Labs threat intelligence, delivers a Universal Zero Trust Network Access (UZTNA) architecture that integrates seamlessly with 180+ security and IT products. With Forescout Vistaro, organizations get comprehensive inventory and classification of both managed and unmanaged assets, continuous exposure management, and real-time protection including dynamic network segmentation and automated threat response.