Florida Water Supply Hack Demonstrates Our Vulnerability to Cyberattacks
Robert Wheeler, The Organic Prepper
Scoop Publisher Francesco Abbruzzino
A seemingly innocuous story coming out of Oldsmar, Florida may have greater implications for the rest of the country and a potential preview of a coming SHFT scenario. This is because a hacker was able to successfully alter the levels of chemicals in Oldsmar’s water supply to “potentially damaging” levels.
While nobody got hurt and authorities assure us that there was no danger to customers, this event clearly demonstrates exactly how vulnerable our infrastructure is to a cyberattack. This event comes on the heels of a massive cyberattack last December for which a culprit was never identified.
A hacker increased an ingredient in drain cleaner to dangerous levels.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualteri said that a plant operator at Oldsmar’s water treatment facility first noticed that someone had remotely accessed the computer system he was monitoring. Those computers allow for remote access to selected people so that maintenance and troubleshooting can take place remotely. This is why the operator didn’t think much about the incident at first.
But it happened again that afternoon and the operator could then see the mouse moving on the screen opening different functions that controlled the treatment of the water in the system.
Gualtieri stated that the hacker was able to increase the sodium hydroxide levels in the city’s water from 100 parts per million to 11,000 parts per million.
“This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase,” Gualtieri said. “Sodium hydroxide is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners. It’s also used to control water acidity and remove metals from drinking water in the water treatment plants.”
Gualtieri stated that the hacker exited the system after increasing the sodium hydroxide levels and the operator was immediately able to stabilize the levels and reduce the amount of sodium hydroxide.
Authorities say the public was never at risk.
“The public was never in danger,” Gualtieri said. “Even if the plant operator had not quickly reversed the increased amount of sodium hydroxide, it would’ve taken between 24 and 36 hours for that water to hit the water supply system.”
The Sheriff attempted to reassure the public by saying there are “redundancies in place” where the water would be checked before being released and consumed by the public.
Currently, law enforcement does not have a suspect but claims they do have a few leads.
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