Report: Oldsmar water hack came after city computer visited compromised website
Investigation finds watering-hole attack discovered targeting water utilities
WFTS
and last updated 2021-05-19 15:48:10-04
OLDSMAR, Fla. â An Oldsmar city computer reportedly visited a website hosting malicious code that targeted water utilities in the hours leading up to the cityâs water treatment plan being hacked, a new report from the security firm Dragos said.
The Oldsmar water hack saw someone try to poison the water supply with lye, but it was discovered before any damage could be done. While the website ultimately didnât play a role in the hack of the water supply system in Oldsmar, Dragos said the overall incident shined a light on IT security in the infrastructure in the United States.
The city hall of Oldsmar, Florida (Photo: City of Oldsmar)
Investigators at industrial cybersecurity specialist Dragos say an employee of the water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida, where a cyberattack was thwarted, had visited an infected website the same day, but that apparently played no role in the security incident.
The city worker visited the infected website, which belongs to a general contractor in Florida that services the water and waste industries, writes Kent Backman, an adversary hunter at Dragos. The visit occurred on Feb. 5, the same day that an attacker attempted to increase the levels of lye that would be added to the city s water, an action that was spotted and stopped (see:
OLDSMAR — A 60-year-old Oldsmar woman suffered life-threatening injuries in a single-vehicle crash that occurred about 10:20 a.m. May 15 on Tampa Road in Oldsmar.
Small Kansas water utility system hacking highlights risks
April 11, 2021
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ELLSWORTH, Kan. (AP) A former Kansas utility worker has been charged with remotely tampering with a public water system s cleaning procedures, highlighting the difficulty smaller utilities face in protecting against hackers.
Wyatt Travnichek, 22, was charged last month with remotely accessing the Post Rock Rural Water District s systems in March 2019, about two months after he quit his job with the utility. He s accused of shutting down the facility’s cleaning and disinfecting procedures.
When he worked for the utility, he would monitor the water plant remotely by logging into its computer system, the Kansas City Star reports.
OLDSMAR â The city of Oldsmar became world renowned for all the wrong reasons after the North Pinellas communityâs water treatment plant suffered a software breach over Super Bowl weekend.
The Feb. 5 hack, which investigators said involved an unknown party accessing the facilityâs computer system and altering the chemical composition of the water supply, received international attention and shined a spotlight on the shortcomings of a critical component of the nationâs infrastructure system.
Officials said the breach attempted to raise the level of sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye, in the water supply to dangerous levels. It was spotted by a plant worker, who notified a supervisor who subsequently called the Pinellas County Sheriffâs Office, leading some to praise the alert employee.