Using TeamViewer, hacker breaks into water treatment plant and tries to poison the water - yikes!

[hal]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-c...SKBN2A82FV

The hackers remotely gained access to a software program, named TeamViewer, on the computer of an employee at the facility to gain control of other systems, sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in an interview with Reuters.

“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 whose computer was hacked noticed the change and alerted his employer, who called the sheriff on Friday. The the water treatment facility was able to quickly revert the command, leading to minimal impact.

secure those passwords folks!!

[S. Pupp]

YIKES!
I've always been a bit concerned about the possible hackability of software like LogMeIn, Teamviewer, and AnyDesk. I guess the key is to disable unattended access, but what an inconvenience!

[freeradical]

Sodium hydroxide is not used to control the "acidity" of water. It is used to remediate the water by causing cations to precipitate out of the water in the form of metal hydroxides. I find it really surprising that Reuters can't even get a basic fact like this correct.

[hal]

https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/sodi...sinfectant.

a quick search brings me to this:

Municipal water treatment facilities use sodium hydroxide to control water acidity and to help remove heavy metals from water. Sodium hydroxide is also used to produce sodium hypochlorite, a water disinfectant.

maybe everyone can be right :-)

[Thrift Store Scott]

freeradical wrote:
Sodium hydroxide is not used to control the "acidity" of water. It is used to remediate the water by causing cations to precipitate out of the water in the form of metal hydroxides. I find it really surprising that Reuters can't even get a basic fact like this correct.

Try being a car person or worse yet an airplane person and then count the factual errors great and small in any news story involving either of those subjects. Apparently water treatment is no different.

[rz]

Whenever these kinds of stories come out, I always ask the same question. WHY are critical infrastructure systems like these even accessible on the internet?

[rjmacs]

rz wrote:
Whenever these kinds of stories come out, I always ask the same question. WHY are critical infrastructure systems like these even accessible on the internet?

Because it's not reasonable to expect qualified staff to be on-site 24/7 if you privatize and disinvest your public infrastructure systems.

[kj]

freeradical wrote:
Sodium hydroxide is not used to control the "acidity" of water. It is used to remediate the water by causing cations to precipitate out of the water in the form of metal hydroxides. I find it really surprising that Reuters can't even get a basic fact like this correct.

In this day where you literally just have to lift up your phone and type in a search, it absolutely floors me how many people have perfected their "authoritative voice" and offer up ridiculous "facts" off the top of their head. Dude, just look it up! Don't make someone be the weener who sits on their phone and factchecks at the dinner table. So I guess it doesn't surprise me, but I don't understand it.

[fauch]

hal wrote:


secure those passwords folks!!

More like secure your systems and hire competent IT and cybersecurity people. There is no WAY that a computer that controls sensitive water treatment systems should be allowed to have something like "TeamViewer" installed and be so easy to hijack. This is negligence of Homer Simpson proportions...