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Police say an attempt to contaminate a Florida city’s water supply with sodium hydroxide failed despite a hacker gaining remote access to the processing plant’s computer system. local water.
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Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told a press conference Monday that an employee at the town of Oldsmar’s water treatment plant first noticed unusual activity with his computer system at 8 a.m. on Friday, when a hacker had briefly entered the system.
At around 1:30 p.m., a hacker gained access to the system again, taking control of the mouse and directing it to the software that controls the water treatment. The hacker then briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners. It is also used to control the acidity of water and remove metals from drinking water in treatment plants.
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Once the hacker exited the system, a factory worker was able to step in and reverse the change.
“Because the operator noticed the increase and lowered it right away, at no point was there any significant negative effect on the treated water,” Gualtieri said. “Above all, the public has never been in danger.”
Gualtieri noted that even if the worker had not intervened right away, it would have taken between 24 and 36 hours to hit the water supply system and that there were other protective measures in place where the The water would have been checked before being released.
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After making the fix, the worker notified a supervisor who disabled remote access to the system.
Police were briefed on the incident late Friday afternoon, and the department’s digital forensic unit worked to determine the cause of the violation and to identify the person or persons responsible. Gualtieri added that although the suspect remains unknown, police have leads they are following.
It is currently unclear why the Oldsmar system was targeted and whether the violation originated in the United States or outside the country. Gualtieri noted that the police have “no knowledge of illegal access to other systems”.
Oldsmar is approximately 15 miles northwest of Tampa. The incident happened the same weekend as Super Bowl LV at Raymond Jay Stadium, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs by 31-9.
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In addition to disabling remote access, City Manager Al Braithwaite said the processing plant will make additional upgrades to the system to ensure the incident does not happen again.
Police are asking all government entities in the Tampa Bay area to actively review their computer security protocols and make any necessary updates that are “in accordance with the latest practices.”
“This type of activity and this type of hacking of critical infrastructure is not necessarily limited to water supply systems alone,” Gualtieri warned. “It can be anything, it can be sewage systems, it can be a wide variety of things. It could really be problematic and this is where we want to make sure we pay close attention to everything. that. ”
The incident is under a criminal investigation by the Pinella County Sheriff’s Office as well as federal partners in the FBI and the United States Secret Service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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