Ransomware gangs targeted 3 different US water treatment plants this year in previously unreported attacks, according to federal agencies

Business Insider ^ | 16 October 2021 | Aaron Holmes

[blueplum]

Ransomware gangs attacked even more water treatment plants across the US than previously known, according to a new report.

Water plants in Nevada, Maine, and California were all hit with ransomware in 2021 — and all three incidents went unreported until Thursday, when the attacks were disclosed in a joint advisory published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, the NSA, and the Environmental Protection Agency...

...In all three attacks, cybercriminals took over the water treatment plants' supervisory control ....

[blueplum]

The unannounced attacks occured in California, Maine and Nevada.

[SaveFerris]

Took a job years ago. Our site got hit with ransomware the day I started. I confiscated the PC. Never let it go live again. I had never dealt with ransomware before that day.

Less than two months later, a second ransomware attack. With no protection (against my ignored complaints) a second machine was taken down.

I shut it down. Planned on pulling the machine. As I walked back over the idiot who was in charge had them turn on the PC and they’re trying to connect to other PCs.

Another goofball had convinced them he could fix it .

🙄🙄🙄

[Gene Eric]

Yo, Jack... once you’re done pouring the foundation, be sure to hook up that wifi gizmo to the central water pipe.

[mabarker1]

I blame this squarely on the SCADA Software Developers, Installation Contractor and the Water Treatment Plant Security for building a SCADA System that’s lax on isolation from the .net. Someone left a Hole. They could have made a special Port with Secure Gateway or taken the least expensive, simplest and unbeatable route and DON’T PLUG IN THE CAT5 Port.

Probably an investigation will show that the Operator on Duty was online playing video games or screwing around on social media like fazebork. jitter or any of the other sites. And had the Operator been paying attention would have most likely seen the breech as it was happening.

[GOPJ]

If China goes to war with Taiwan - and chip manufacturing grinds to a halt for a year or so - will water treatment plants we able to function?

[Chickensoup]

20 years ago many facilities functioned without the net. Go back.

[ptsal]

Oddly, ransomeware attacks hit on water plants and natural gas pipelines, but they somehow overlook podunk county election offices.

Guess the security is either great at the election office or their is a common interest among the bad actors. /s

[dljordan]

Get them off the net.

[9YearLurker]

We’ve insanely done just that with everything!

[AppyPappy]

Disconnect from the network

[AppyPappy]

More likely a phish

[ronnie raygun]

In agenda 21 planning, poisoning the water systems in rural areas will force the population into smaller areas for better control. Don’t let them think they have you bullsh##ted. Do yourself a favor and read thru agenda 21/35 its all there, pandemics, societal collapse, racial divides, de population, elimination of law enforcement, deliberate food shortages (gates soros and china buying up hugh swaths of land in the mid west)

[butlerweave]

Democrats making a little extra cash

[bgill]

NSA can find them if they wanted to but they don’t. Why?

[Chode]

wonderful

[mabarker1]

As long as the Operation’s Crew is trained on how to do it. The bigger the WTP is the harder it will be. I’ve run a 35 MGD (Million Gallons Daily) Plant by Myself and I wouldn’t want to have to do much more than that Solo.

I most definitely would not be having to run a Waste Water Treatment Plant Manually !!!

I’m very glad to be on a Private Well and a Septic Tank !!!

[GOPJ]

As long as the Operation’s Crew is trained on how to do it. The bigger the WTP is the harder it will be. I’ve run a 35 MGD (Million Gallons Daily) Plant by Myself ... As long as the Operation’s Crew is trained on how to do it.

Let's hope large city plants are getting back-up chips and doing emergency training. Thanks for the information mabarker...

[bobbo666]

You can’t have your systems hijacked unless:
1. insider planted spyware — and kept turning it back on

or

2 some worse idiot allowed your control systems to be in any way whatsoever get connected to the WWW.
You are treating waste water. It will take care of the idiot’s corpse.

It really is that simple. Expensive, yes? So are the brakes on your car.

[SaveFerris]

They both opened emails with it.

1) No virus protection.

2) No admin policy on PCs.

3) No backups

I tried to educate them. Ha. What a waste of time.

[Republican Wildcat]

Didn’t we have water treatment prior to the internet? Can the main systems of critical infrastructure not operate on their own intranet without being accessible to the outside to avoid this?