A recent cyberattack on a Florida water treatment plant highlights the threat hackers can pose to utilities with inadequate cybersecurity.
On Friday, an unknown hacker twice broke into a program that gives authorized users full, remote access to the Oldsmar water treatment plant in Pinellas County, and ordered it to increase the amount of lye in the water to extremely dangerous levels, Kevin Collier reports for NBC News. A water plant operator noticed and corrected the change immediately, but if that hadn't happened and the plant's alarms didn't detect it either, the lye could have made it into the community's water supply within 24 to 36 hours.
Though Oldsmar it isn't rural—it's a Tampa suburb—the incident serves as a reminder of the danger hackers pose in rural areas. Small-town governments, utilities and hospitals are increasingly getting hit with cyberattacks in which hackers encrypt data and demand a ransom to unlock it. Since rural areas often have older systems and less tech-savvy workers, hackers see them as easier targets.
Rural utilities may be especially hard-pressed to pay for security upgrades right now, as financially struggling customers have a hard time paying their bills.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2N8Lw36 Florida water treatment facility hack highlights dangers of poor cybersecurity for utilities - Entrepreneur Generations
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