Hackers Fail To Contaminate Florida Water

Hackers broke into the computer system of a facility that treats water for about 15,000 people near Tampa, Florida and sought to add a dangerous level of additive to the water supply, the Pinellas County Sheriff says. The criminals infiltrated a treatment plant and boosted Sodium Hydroxide to dangerous levels. The attack occurred 20 miles from the site of the Super Bowl, two days before the game was to be played.

The initial attempt was thwarted. The hackers remotely gained access to a software program, named TeamViewer, on the computer of an employee at the facility for the town of Oldsmar to gain control of other systems. The affected water treatment facility is a public utility owned by the town of Oldsmar (15,000 inhabitants) which has its own internal IT team. 

The incident took place over the course of the day, with hackers first infiltrating the Oldsmar water treatment plant. The hackers then increased the amount of sodium hydroxide being distributed into the water supply. The chemical is typically used in small amounts to control the acidity of water, but at higher levels is dangerous to consume. 

TeamViewer is a widely used software application that allows easy access to machines remotely from anywhere, and is often used for remote IT troubleshooting  and technical assistance. “The guy was sitting there monitoring the computer as he’s supposed to and all of a sudden he sees a window pop up that the computer has been accessed... The next thing you know someone is dragging the mouse and clicking around and opening programs and manipulating the system.” said the Sheriff. Team Viewer  has been installed on 2.5 billion devices worldwide, enables remote technical support among other applications.

The plant employee alerted his employer, who called the Sheriff and the water treatment facility was able to quickly reverse the command, leading to minimal impact.

The leading cybersecurity firm Fireweed attributed an increase in hacking attempts it has seen in the last year mostly to novices seeking to learn about remotely accessible industrial systems.Many victims appear to have been selected arbitrarily and no serious damage was caused in any of the cases – in part because of safety mechanisms and professional monitoring, Fireweed analyst Daniel Appellant Zara said in a statement. “While the (Oldsmar) incident does not appear to be particularly complex, it highlights the need to strengthen the cybersecurity capabilities across the water and wastewater industry,” he said.

It is not known if the hack was done from within the US and  his latest attack in Florida will do nothing to calm cyber security experts who've been warning for years that critical national infrastructure facilities are being targeted. Water, electricity, nuclear plants and transport are being probed for weaknesses all the time not just because of the potential for mass disruption but also because they are often running on obsolete and vulnerable IT systems.  

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