I don’t understand way the machinery would even allow such a modification in the first place. Is there ever a reason for that concentration of lye in the water?
Maybe they should ditch the electronics, and just go back to the old lever system.
Posted on 02/27/2021 8:09:14 AM PST by rktman
A recent story from Florida should direct policymakers’ attention to a glaring strategic problem in American defense. In the city of Oldsmar, a small community in the Tampa metro area, an unknown hacker gained access to the chemical controls of the municipal water treatment system. Fortunately, an operator at the facility observed the breach in real time, watching as the intruder set the level of sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye, to 100 times its normal level. The operator was able to immediately undo the change, so no one was harmed.
But what if that instant detection hadn’t happened? As of this writing, nothing is known about the source of the attack. And it wasn’t “just 'Oh, we're putting a little bit of chlorine or a little bit of fluoride, or a little bit of something,'” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
“We're basically talking about lye that you are taking from 100 parts per million to 11,100."
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearworld.com ...
Why has the perp’s name or photo not been released? Why so much secrecy from the PCSO? Because Rubio asked the FBI to investigate as a “national security” threat? So Marco did this to make sure the identity and photo and origin of the attacker would remain classified. Now why would a senator from Florida want that?
Here is an excerpt:
Investigators said it wasn't immediately clear where the attack came from - whether the hacker was domestic or foreign. The FBI, along with the Secret Service and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office are investigating the case.
Russian state-backed hackers have in recent years penetrated some U.S. industrial control systems, including the power grid and manufacturing plants while Iranian hackers were caught seizing control of a suburban New York dam in 2013.
I don’t understand way the machinery would even allow such a modification in the first place. Is there ever a reason for that concentration of lye in the water?
Maybe they should ditch the electronics, and just go back to the old lever system.
I think it’s time to start looking DIY water distillation.
Has anyone heard different ?
From the article:
In the city of Oldsmar, a small community in the Tampa metro area, an unknown hacker gained access to the chemical controls of the municipal water treatment system.
What I want to know is weather the Hack was via High Speed or a Dial Up Connection.
Most state / county / city governments are not able to pay for skilled cyber security personnel. Further, unlike banks, utilities, and Health Care, city governments have very few regulations that they MUST comply with. This leads to an environment where municipal budgets do not burden themselves with concerns regarding cyber security .... until something bad happens.
BINGO the same with many other systems
That control room looks like an old mining dredge from the 20s & 30s.
LOL! Looks like one of the control systems for an old mining dredge. Or one of the systems we used to test the External Tanks for the Space Shuttle. :-)
Like I said, if it’s linked to the WWW, watch out.
LOL! I saw your post right after I made mine. Brilliant minds and all that....................
The Dosage parameters in the Software was done by a Programmer not a Water System Operator. Most likely the Programmer just said to themselves let’s just pick a number for Maximum Setting.
The Chemical Feed Pumps probably don’t have the capacity to ACTUALLY feed that Dosage. If I knew the Plant and System Specs I could give you much more info. Is the Plant Treating .5 MGD (Million Gallons a Day or 25 MGD ?
ZOOKER- There are multiple reasons for remote access. Supervisor wanting to keep an eye on an Employee, an Alarm going off for Dosages not right, Tank Levels, System Pressure and such.
I had one stupidvisor that just had to be a PIA Control Freak. He lived a few blocks away from one of the Senior Operators and while the Operator was on Vacation the stupidvisor was caught on the Operator’s Home Security Cameras walking up to the fence and pulling himself up to look in the backyard. Why was the stupidvisor Trespassing and Snooping around the Operator’s Private Property while He was on Vacation ?
The same stupidvisor would get on the SCADA from home and start moving the Security Cameras at the Plant and Remote Pump Station’s at 02:00 or 03:00 to see if the Operator on Shift would catch the Camera adjustments. He knew that was the time that We had Lab Samples to grab and run Analysis.
Another Plant I worked at it was the Board of Directors just snooping around while they knew ZIP about the System other than the water came out of the faucet.
Good guess, but that picture actually shows me operating the controls for my cat’s litter box cleaner. If I knew how complicated it would be, I wouldn’t have bought the darn thing.
Perhaps bill gates can assist you in automating the op. We know he’s well versed in crap handling.
“Good guess, but that picture actually shows me operating the controls for my cat’s litter box cleaner. If I knew how complicated it would be, I wouldn’t have bought the darn thing.”
LOLOLOLOLMAO!
You must have watched some of the “Gold Rush” episodes with Tony Beets and his resurrected dredges. Heh.
Cannot see what except for cleaning. We used that in the dairy for CPI (Clean In Place) operations for the pasteurizer that could not be taken apart often. I used a little in a lot of very very hot it to scrub parts with and it left your hands feeling slimy, and it took a lot of hot hot water to rinse off. If i filled a cup with cold water and filled the rest with the lye then it would heat the water up so much that the plastic spoon would bend from the heat.
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