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After hack at Florida plant, local officials say layers of security keep water safe

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A day after Pinellas County authorities reported a cyber intruder’s failed attempt to poison the water on Friday at a plant near Tampa, officials in Miami-Dade and Broward counties said water treatment plants in South Florida are safe.

A supervisor at the Oldsmar water plant reported witnessing when the hacker changed the sodium hydroxide settings and quickly fixed it. Authorities said there were other safeguards that would have caught the chemical change. The area was hosting the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The FBI was still investigating the breach of the remote-access system on Tuesday. A. Selcuk Uluagac leads Florida International University’s Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab. He said other systems such as the smart grid, oil and gas plants, and transportation systems use similar technologies.

“These systems should not be directly connected to the internet and also they should be layered,” Uluagac said.

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The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department produces 320 million gallons a day of drinking water and serves nearly 2.3 million residents and thousands of tourists. Jose Cueto, the interim director of the department, said the public needs to know it’s safe and reliable.

“At no point is our treatment process vulnerable to bad actors and those type of security threats,” Cueto said on Tuesday.

Lars Schmekel, Miami-Dade County’s chief information security officer, said the local Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, a control system of software and hardware elements allow them to monitor the process.

“There are multiple levels of authentication,” Schmekel said.

In Broward County, there is a similar system of checks and balances. Joann Hussey, a spokeswoman for the city of Hollywood, said there is staff onsite around the clock, alarms that sound when things are off and only a small team is authorized to make adjustments.

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“There is no automated way for those chemicals to be added into the system if a hacker was able to get into the system,” Hussey said. “Those chemicals are added manually.”

Alan Garcia, the director of the Broward County Water and Wastewater Services, said the public has absolutely nothing to worry about.

“We are…

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Dayton’s drinking water systems have layers of security designed to prevent hacking, officials say

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News Highlights: Dayton’s drinking water systems have layers of security designed to prevent hacking, officials say

“This is what we do,” Powell said.

The SCADA of the city of Xenia water treatment plant is also not connected to the Internet for security reasons, said Joe Bates, water treatment supervisor.

A hacker gained access to the system that controls the water treatment plant of an Oldsmar, a Florida city of 15,000 residents, and attempted to contaminate the water supply with a caustic chemical, exposing a hazard that cybersecurity experts say has grown as systems both become more automated as more accessible via the internet.

The hacker who broke the system at the Oldsmar city water treatment plant on Friday using a remote access program shared by factory workers briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide by a factor of a hundred (from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million), Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County said during a news conference Monday.

Experts say municipal water and other systems have the potential to be an easy target for hackers, as local governments’ computing infrastructure is often underfunded.

Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos Security, and a specialist in industrial operating system vulnerabilities, said remote access to industrial operating systems such as those …

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Dayton’s drinking water systems have layers of security to curb hacking, officials say

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“This is what we do,” Powell said.

The city of Xenia water treatment plant’s SCADA also is not connected to the internet because of security reasons, said Joe Bates, water treatment supervisor.

A hacker gained entry to the system controlling the water treatment plant of a Oldsmar, a Florida city of 15,000, and tried to taint the water supply with a caustic chemical, exposing a danger cybersecurity experts say has grown as systems become both more computerized and accessible via the internet.

The hacker who breached the system at the city of Oldsmar’s water treatment plant on Friday using a remote access program shared by plant workers briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide by a factor of one hundred (from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million), Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference Monday.

Experts say municipal water and other systems have the potential to be easy targets for hackers because local governments’ computer infrastructure tends to be underfunded.

Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos Security, and a specialist in industrial control system vulnerabilities, said remote access to industrial control systems such as those running water treatment plants has become increasingly common.

“As industries become more digitally connected, we will continue to see more states and criminals target these sites for the impact they have on society,” Lee said.

ExploreDayton loses billions of gallons of water every year. What is it doing to stop the costly leaks?

Eight years ago Dayton officials made the decision not to put the computer systems that control its water plants on the internet because they noticed cybersecurity threats were on the rise, Powell said. The city also joined associations such as the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center ― WaterISAC ― that alerts them whenever threats or other issues emerge relating to drinking water.

About 6 a.m. Tuesday, Powell received an alert from WaterISAC informing him about the breach in Florida and recommending eight action steps water utilities needed to take immediately to avoid similar hacks. Powell reviewed the list and said Dayton had already taken all those steps, he said.

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What security layers exist in my computer?

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Hello

I know that there is a firewall, and that I have my own security software; but what else should or is already installed on my Windows Vista computer which gives it security protection?

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