Hackers try to contaminate Florida town's water supply through computer
breach
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[February 09, 2021]
By Christopher Bing
(Reuters) - Hackers broke into the computer
system of a facility that treats water for about 15,000 people near
Tampa, Florida and sought to add a dangerous level of additive to the
water supply, the Pinellas County Sheriff said on Monday.
The attempt on Friday was thwarted. The hackers remotely gained access
to a software program, named TeamViewer, on the computer of an employee
at the facility for the town of Oldsmar to gain control of other
systems, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in an interview.
"The guy was sitting there monitoring the computer as he's supposed to
and all of a sudden he sees a window pop up that the computer has been
accessed," Gualtieri said. "The next thing you know someone is dragging
the mouse and clicking around and opening programs and manipulating the
system."
The hackers then increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as
lye, being distributed into the water supply. The chemical is typically
used in small amounts to control the acidity of water, but at higher
levels is dangerous to consume.
The plant employee alerted his employer, who called the sheriff. The
water treatment facility was able to quickly reverse the command,
leading to minimal impact.
Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel said in a press conference on Monday that the
affected water treatment facility also had other controls in place that
would have prevented a dangerous amount of lye from entering the water
supply unnoticed.
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The logo of software company TeamViewer AG is pictured during
TeamViewer's initial public offering (IPO) at the Frankfurt Stock
Exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph
Orlowski/File Photo
"The amount of sodium hydroxide that got in was minimal and was
reversed quickly," Gualtieri said. The affected water treatment
facility is a public utility owned by the town, he explained, which
has its own internal IT team. Oldsmar is about 17 miles northwest of
Tampa and has about 15,000 residents.
TeamViewer, which says on its website that its software has been
installed on 2.5 billion devices worldwide, enables remote technical
support among other applications.
The FBI and Secret Service have been called in to assist in an
investigation. Gualtieri said he does not know who is responsible
for the cyberattack.
"The important thing is to put everyone on notice,” he said. "This
should be a wake-up call."
(Reporting by Christopher Bing; editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia
Osterman)
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