A town in Florida has been target of a hack which briefly altered chemicals in its water supply to "potentially damaging levels" according to local media reports. Federal and local authorities are currently investigating the computer network intrusion which happened last Friday morning, the alarming details of which are emerging Monday.
Plant operators overseeing the small city of Oldsmar’s water supply began observing strange activity on their monitors. That's when technicians noticed that sodium hydroxide levels (or lye), which is used to treat the city's water in small amounts in order to control acidity while removing heavy metals, was being remotely pushed higher.
Technicians noticed the chemical levels being subject of unauthorized external manipulation in real time and immediately moved to restore the sodium hydroxide input to its safe, correct levels. The AP detailed based on local reporting: "A plant worker first noticed the unusual activity at around 8 a.m. Friday when someone briefly accessed the system."
"At about 1:30 p.m., someone accessed it again, took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water treatment and increased the amount of sodium hydroxide," the report continued.
The hacker or hackers have yet to be uncovered and apprehended. According to details announced by the county sheriff Bob Gualtieri and featured in Tampa Bay Times:
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.
"This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase," the Pinellas County sheriff added.
He further explained that the hacker's changes inside the system were detected before any damage was done that could affect the public: "The public was never in danger," Gualtieri said additionally. "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 Oldsmar water treatment plant is responsible for supplying water to an estimated 15,000 residents along with dozens of businesses. It essentially appears the hacker was attempting to poison the drinking water for an entire town.
Currently the FBI and Secret Service have joined county sheriff efforts at attempting to trace the hack.
The alarming incident comes following federal officials and cybersecurity experts over the past several years expressing anxiety over the vulnerability of vital US infrastructure to potentially devastating hacks, particularly from foreign entities, which could in some cases actually threaten lives.
在美國佛羅里達州，當地執法人員公布日前有懷疑黑客入侵當地濾水廠電腦系統，企圖在食水中加入超出安全劑量的添加劑，被及時發現並阻止。
據外地傳媒報道，佛羅里達州Pinellas郡警長Bob
Gualtieri表示，當地位於Tampa市郊Oldsmar鎮濾水廠的電腦操作員，於2月5日上午發現有人從遠端登入濾水廠電腦系統，操控廠內的控制裝置。操作員發現電腦的滑鼠游標，在各項功能鍵之間游移數分鐘，接着打開往水中添加氫氧化鈉的控制裝置，添加量從100萬分之100
(100ppm)，提高100倍至100萬分之11,000
(11,100ppm)。操作員立刻通知主管報警，廠方即時取消該電腦指令，將影響減到最小。
Gualtieri指，微量氫氧化鈉可控制食水酸度並去除水中金屬離子，但過量攝入會對人體健康造成風險：「如此巨大的增幅顯然有潛在危險，幸虧及時發現」。他強調供水用戶不受到影響，因為即使沒有立即發現黑客入侵，氫氧化鈉含量高的水至少需要24小時才能輸送到消費者用戶，與此同時，安全機制會提醒廠方人員注意水質變化。
他說，聯邦調查局及美國特勤局正在協助調查，但到目前為止仍未能鎖定疑犯，亦未能確定疑犯是來自國內還是海外，也不清楚Oldsmar鎮為何成為攻擊目標。
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