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Hacker tried to poison Florida city’s water supply — GCN

February 9, 2021/in Computer Security

water treatment plant (People Image Studio/Shutterstock.com)

Hacker tried to poison Florida city’s water supply

By Susan Miller
Feb 09, 2021

As an employee at a water treatment plant watched, a hacker took control of his computer and changed chemical controls to dump lye into the drinking water of Oldsmar, Fla., a city of 15,000 near Tampa.

At about 8 a.m. on Feb. 5, a worker at the Oldsmar water treatment plant noticed that his computer was being remotely accessed by TeamViewer, a popular desktop control application that allows IT staff and supervisors to monitor operations and troubleshoot enterprise computers in remote locations. The worker “didn’t think much of it,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a Feb. 8 news conference, because such remote access was not unusual.

The intruder returned later that same day, moving the employee’s mouse to open functions that control water treatment protocols, including one that adjusts the amount of sodium hydroxide, or lye, in the water. The hacker changed that level from about 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million, potentially endangering Oldsmar residents. Fortunately, the operator who was watching the intruder’s movements immediately reduced the chemical to the appropriate level and notified a supervisor.

Such attacks on utility control systems are not unusual, according to Lesley Carhart, a principal threat analyst at Dragos, an industrial control system security firm. Carhart told Wired that even unsophisticated hackers can find thousands of connected systems with tools like Shodan, a search engine that lets users find specific types of internet-connected devices.

According to Carhart, water treatment and sewage plants are vulnerable targets, especially during the pandemic when some workers are remote and IT staff are under-resourced. It’s usually the complexity and redundancies built into industrial control systems that prevent hackers from causing serious consequences, she said.

Oldsmar’s water treatment plant has several redundancies in place to catch unexpected changes.

“If you change the…

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Hacker changed chemical level at Oldsmar water treatment facility

February 9, 2021/in Computer Security

Thanks to a vigilant operator and several redundancies, officials say the heightened level of sodium hydroxide never caused a public threat.

OLDSMAR, Fla. — A hacker gained access to Oldsmar’s water treatment plant, bumping the sodium hydroxide in the water to a “dangerous” level, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

In a press conference Monday, Gualtieri said his deputies, along with the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, are investigating the breach as it is unclear if it came from within the U.S. or from a foreign actor.

The incident first occurred on Feb. 5 at the city’s water treatment plant when, around 8 a.m., an operator noticed someone had remotely entered the computer system that he was monitoring. It’s a system responsible for controlling the chemicals and other operations of the water treatment plant, Gualtieri said.

At first, the operator did not think much of the action due to the common use of the remote access software by supervisors to troubleshoot from different locations. That’s until it happened again.

And this time, Gualtieri says, the hacker did more than just remote in. According to the sheriff, the hacker spent up to five minutes in the system and adjusted the amount of sodium hydroxide in the water from 100 parts per million to 11,100.

“This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase. Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners,” Gualtieri added.

RELATED: Oldsmar water treatment plant hack: 5 things to know about water safety, other cyberattacks

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Someone tried to poison Florida city’s water supply during hack, sheriff says

February 8, 2021/in Computer Security

TAMPA, Fla. — Local and federal authorities are investigating after an attempt Friday to poison the city of Oldsmar’s water supply, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

a couple of people that are standing in a room: Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri speaks at a press conference Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, along with Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel, left.

© Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office/TNS
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri speaks at a press conference Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, along with Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel, left.

Someone remotely accessed a computer for the city’s water treatment system and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, by a factor of more than 100, Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday. The chemical is used in small amounts to control the acidity of water but it’s also a corrosive compound commonly found in household cleaning supplies such as liquid drain cleaners.

The city’s water supply was not affected. A supervisor working remotely saw the concentration being changed on his computer screen and immediately reverted it, Gualtieri said. City officials on Monday emphasized that several other safeguards are in place to prevent contaminated water from entering the water supply and said they’ve disabled the remote-access system used in the attack.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, along with the FBI and the Secret Service, Gualtieri said.

Nobody has been arrested, Gualtieri said, though investigators have some leads. They do not know why the city of Oldsmar was targeted, he said. He added that other area municipalities have been alerted to the attack and encouraged to inspect the safeguards to their water treatment systems and other infrastructure.

Though some cities obtain water through Pinellas County, Oldsmar provides water directly to its businesses and roughly 15,000 residents, Gualtieri said. The computer system at the water treatment plant was set up to allow authorized users to remotely access it for troubleshooting.

A plant operator was monitoring the system at about 8 a.m. EST Friday and noticed that someone briefly accessed it. He didn’t find this unusual, Gualtieri said, because his supervisor remotely accessed the system regularly.

But at about 1:30 p.m. the same day, Gualtieri said, someone accessed the system again. This time, he said, the…

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