Posted on 11/18/2011 2:40:07 PM PST by Just4Him
Foreign hackers broke into a water plant control system in Illinois last week and damaged a water pump in what appears to be the first reported case of a malicious cyber attack damaging a critical computer system in the United States, according to an industry expert.
On Nov. 8, a municipal water district employee in Illinois noticed problems with the city’s water pump control system, and a technician determined the system had been remotely hacked into from a computer located in Russia, said Joe Weiss, an industry security expert who obtained a copy of an Illinois state fusion center report describing the incident.
“This is a big deal,” said Weiss. The report stated it is unknown how many other systems might be affected.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a water plant in Springfield, Ill. had been damaged, but spokesman Peter Boogaard said officials had not yet determined that the water pump failure was caused by a cyber-attack. “DHS and the FBI are gathering facts surrounding the report of a water pump failure in Springfield, Illinois. At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety,” he said
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Must’ve been Tea Party people....you know what a threat they are.
Most plants (Power, water, utility etc.)are vulnerable to this attack. The Stuxnet virus variations attacks the control systems.
I don’t get why process control systems like this have to be connected to the internet. If so, they only should be in a viewing mode.
Do we have to allow someone to position the main steam stop valve in a power plant from their house? We never used to.
If we tie this infrastructure to the internet; sabotage is inevitable; and sooner than anyone thinks. How many times have we heard that 128 bit keys are uncrackable, then someone cracks them in less than a week? The solution is to keep these systems off the net.
The expectation of ignorance is not a susbstitution for security.
Yup
Jon Corzine is from that area of Illinois. Not that I’m suggesting anything about finding the $700 million that went missing.
Ping.
Why in the world do we put these things on the Internet?
Sounds like someone’s managed to reverse engineer the stuxnet malware.
And so it begins...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396835,00.asp
“DHS, FBI Find ‘No Evidence’ of Public Water Utility Hack”
By Chloe Albanesius
November 23, 2011 02:14pm EST
SNIPPET: “The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on Wednesday shot down reports that a cyber attack recently took down a pump at an Illinois public water utility.
“After detailed analysis, DHS and the FBI have found no evidence of a cyber intrusion into the SCADA system of the Curran-Gardner Public Water District in Springfield, Illinois,” a DHS spokesman said in a statement.”
#
Quote:
twitter.com/#!/danchodanchev/status/138683733573238785
@danchodanchev
Dancho Danchev
Posted on @ZDNet - SCADA systems at the Water utilities in Illinois, Houston, hacked - is.gd/ClsdCe #security #SCADA
21 Nov via HootSuite
#
Quote:
twitter.com/#!/danchodanchev/status/138676067232776192
@danchodanchev
Dancho Danchev
Cracker using the handle pr0f has posted details on the hacked SCADA systems at the Water utilities in Illinois,Houston is.gd/luGPOI
21 Nov via HootSuite
#
pastebin.com/Wx90LLum
#
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396632,00.asp
“Illinois Water Utility Pump Destroyed After Hack”
By Chloe Albanesius
November 18, 2011 05:28pm EST
SNIPPET: “Joe Weiss, managing partner at Applied Control Systems LLC, said in a Thursday blog post that cyber scammers hacked a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) software vendor and stole customer usernames and passwords. During the hack, however, the SCADA system was powered on and off, burning out a water pump, he said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Peter Boogaard said officials were investigating the incident.”
“Water-pump failure in Illinois wasn’t cyberattack after all”
By Ellen Nakashima, Friday, November 25, 1:53 PM
SNIPPET: “A water-pump failure in Illinois that appeared to be the first foreign cyberattack on a public utility in the United States was in fact caused by a plant contractor traveling in Russia, according to a source familiar with a federal investigation of the incident.
Investigators analyzed log files and connections to foreign Internet protocol addresses within the utility’s computer system, said the source, who was not authorized to speak for attribution. “No indictors of malicious activity were found” in the computer system of the Curran-Gardner Townships Public Water District in Springfield, the source said.”
Just url & title:
“Water-pump failure in Illinois wasn’t cyberattack after all”
By Ellen Nakashima, Friday, November 25, 1:53 PM
us-cert.gov/control_systems/pdf/ICSB-11-327-01.pdf
US-CERT.gov - INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS CYBER EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM - Report - ICSB-11-327-01: “ILLINOIS WATER PUMP FAILURE REPORT” (November 23, 2011)
More updates:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/water-pump-hack-mystery-solved/
“Exclusive: Comedy of Errors Led to False ‘Water-Pump Hack’ Report”
By Kim Zetter
November 30, 2011 | 5:54 pm
#
Previously...
“Hackers accessed city infrastructure via SCADA – FBI”
by Hal Hodson
29 NOVEMBER 2011
#
Quote:
twitter.com/#!/HSPI/status/142278717723512832
@HSPI
GW Homeland Security
Comedy of errors led to false ‘Water-Pump Hack’ report bit.ly/roN3Gg
16 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry
#
Previously...
Quote:
twitter.com/#!/HSPI/status/141986003987599360
@HSPI
GW Homeland Security
FBI: Hackers accessed city infrastructure via SCADA bit.ly/syP4lS
30 Nov via TweetMeme
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