FIRST ON FOX: Texas becomes testing ground for new defense against attacks on America’s water systems

FIRST ON FOX: The Trump administration is launching “Project Watershed 250” Monday, Fox News Digital exclusively learned, deploying American artificial intelligence and cybersecurity tools to protect Texas water systems from cyberattacks in a pilot the administration plans to scale nationwide.

“Project Watershed 250 is another example of President Trump putting American families and communities first. President Trump is relentless in his work to secure our critical infrastructure against our most determined adversaries,” National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross told Fox News Digital. “President Trump has cemented America’s leadership in AI security and innovation and is now bringing those exquisite tools to local communities and utilities in Texas and ultimately, across the nation through the launch of Project Watershed 250 – a scalable cyber water pilot program.”

The Trump administration is bringing federal, state and private-sector cyber defenses together in a six-month Texas pilot aimed at finding vulnerabilities in water systems before adversaries can exploit them — while testing whether the model can be expanded across the country.

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The program will connect Texas water utilities with U.S. cybersecurity companies to test their existing defenses and strengthen vulnerable systems using private-sector cyber and artificial intelligence tools, a White House official told Fox News Digital.

The program will use “red-teaming” to stress-test water utilities’ networks, identify weaknesses hackers could exploit and then strengthen those systems with cybersecurity tools, according to a White House official.

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Dragos CEO Robert Lee said that U.S. water infrastructure faces active, documented threats, particularly at small utilities that often lack strong cybersecurity defenses. Lee said Watershed 250 will help get technology, training and support to those vulnerable systems before an attack occurs.

“There is nothing more important to Texans than clean, reliable drinking water. Project Watershed 250 puts federal, state, and private-sector cyber defenses behind our utilities at no cost. The White House, the Texas Cyber Command, and industry now work from the same playbook,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

A White House official, however, said the program is not in response to recent cyberattacks that targeted more than 30 Minnesota water systems, though the incidents underscored vulnerabilities in local infrastructure.

“However, these recent attacks have reiterated the need for this modernization and focus on water systems,” said the White House official. “Critical Infrastructure protection has long been a priority for ONCD and President Trump and this effort has been in the works since last year.”

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The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will serve as federal partners in the effort, while Texas Cyber Command will work alongside the White House with local governments and tech companies such as Microsoft, Reflection AI, Palo Alto Networks and Dragos Inc.

“Few things matter more than the safety of the water Americans drink, and this is a powerful example of how open-weight AI models, built in the U.S. and running on a utility’s own systems, can help keep communities safe,” said Reflection AI Head of Corporate Affairs Becky Sosnov.

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“Microsoft applauds the Administration’s leadership in strengthening the cybersecurity of America’s water infrastructure and is proud to support the Project Watershed 250 effort in partnership with the Office of the National Cyber Director, the State of Texas, and Texas Cyber Command,” said Microsoft US Public Sector president Chris Barry. “By bringing together Microsoft’s cybersecurity expertise, threat intelligence, and AI-powered security capabilities, we aim to help water utilities strengthen their resilience against evolving cyber threats and develop scalable approaches that can enhance the security of water systems nationwide.”

The push comes as the Trump administration races to build out U.S. data centers to fuel the AI boom, putting more attention on the water and power needed to keep them running.

The pilot program builds on Trump’s June executive order on Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security and his Cyber Strategy for America released in March.