Inside the July 2026 coordinated attack on 30+ municipal water utilities — and the architecture that would have stopped it
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Wednesday, August 26, 2026 | 1:00 PM Eastern

Featuring:    Tom Sego, CEO, BlastWave
      Shawn Six, CEO, UTSI
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The Minnesota Attacks Exposed a Bigger OT Security Problem

On July 26–27, more than 30 community water and wastewater systems across Minnesota were targeted in a coordinated cyberattack. Several utilities experienced disruptions to automated controls, forcing operators to disconnect equipment or fall back to manual operations.

The incident exposed a problem that reaches far beyond Minnesota: many critical OT environments still depend on internet-reachable controllers, legacy equipment, remote access tools, flat networks, and credentials that attackers can exploit or bypass.

Some of these systems cannot simply be patched.

So what happens when patching isn’t the answer?

In this focused 30-minute webinar, BlastWave CEO Tom Sego and UTSI CEO Shawn Six will break down what happened, why traditional defenses leave critical gaps, and how a different OT security architecture can dramatically reduce the attack surface without replacing existing PLCs, HMIs, or SCADA infrastructure.
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What You'll Learn

✓ How attackers find and reach exposed PLCs, HMIs, and remote OT infrastructure
✓ Why VPNs, firewalls, patching, and flat networks can leave critical gaps in OT security
✓ How network cloaking, passwordless access, and microsegmentation reduce the attack surface and contain lateral movement
✓ Practical steps utilities can take now to protect legacy OT systems without ripping out existing infrastructure
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Why This Attack Matters

The lesson from Minnesota is not simply that vulnerable industrial equipment exists.

It is that reachable equipment can become targetable equipment.

Attackers can scan for exposed industrial services, connect through legitimate engineering tools or remote-access paths, and potentially alter configurations, extract PLC project files, interfere with monitoring, or establish persistence.

And when OT networks are flat, compromising one device can create a pathway to much more.

This webinar will show how a Zero Trust OT architecture changes that equation by addressing three fundamental problems:

Make critical assets invisible.
Network cloaking prevents unauthorized scanners and users from discovering PLCs, HMIs, SCADA systems, and other protected OT assets.

Remove passwords from the attack path.
Passwordless, cryptographically verified access eliminates reusable credentials that can be stolen, shared, phished, or guessed.

Limit the blast radius.
Microsegmentation isolates critical systems so compromising one device does not automatically provide access to the rest of the OT environment.
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In 30 Minutes, We'll Cover

What happened in Minnesota
A concise breakdown of the July attacks, the affected OT layer, and what utilities can learn from the response.

How attackers reach industrial systems
Internet-facing PLCs, cellular connections, engineering tools, remote-access paths, and the challenges posed by legacy devices that cannot be fully patched.

Why traditional defenses aren't enough
Where VPNs, perimeter firewalls, shared credentials, and flat OT networks leave gaps.

What a different architecture looks like
A walkthrough of network cloaking, passwordless remote access, and microsegmentation using BlastWave's BlastShield platform.

What utilities can do now
How to identify internet-reachable OT assets, review remote access, assess segmentation, protect legacy infrastructure, maintain offline backups, and prepare for manual operations when needed.
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Built for Real-World Water Utility Environments

Water and wastewater operators rarely have the luxury of replacing every legacy controller or shutting down operations for a major security overhaul.

The goal is not to rebuild your plant.

It's to put a secure architecture around the infrastructure you already depend on.

See how modern OT security controls can be deployed around legacy PLCs, HMIs, SCADA systems, engineering workstations, cellular-connected sites, and vendor access paths while preserving the availability operations teams require.
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Who Should Attend

This session is designed for:

• Water and wastewater utility leaders
• OT and ICS security teams
• Plant and operations managers
• SCADA and controls engineers
• CIOs, CISOs, and IT security teams supporting OT
• Municipal infrastructure and public works leaders
• Industrial systems integrators and engineering firms
• Critical infrastructure organizations operating PLC-driven environments
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Meet the Speakers

Tom Sego

CEO, BlastWave

Tom Sego will break down the cybersecurity architecture behind protecting distributed OT environments, including how network cloaking, passwordless access, and microsegmentation can reduce exposure without requiring wholesale replacement of legacy infrastructure.

Shawn Six

CEO, UTSI

Shawn Six brings the perspective of industrial systems integration and the operational realities utilities face when securing critical infrastructure while maintaining reliability, availability, and existing control-system investments.
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See What Would Change in Your OT Environment

The Minnesota attacks are a reminder that critical infrastructure does not have to be sophisticated to be targeted — it only has to be reachable.

Join us for 30 focused minutes to see how utilities can reduce that exposure, protect remote access, contain lateral movement, and strengthen resilience without ripping and replacing the systems that keep operations running.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
1:00 PM Eastern | 12:00 PM Central | 10:00 AM Pacific

Tom Sego, CEO, BlastWave
Shawn Six, CEO, UTSI