Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
posted by janrinok on Saturday March 23 2024, @12:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the weakest-link dept.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/critical-us-water-systems-face-disabling-cyberattacks-white-house-warns/

The Biden administration on Tuesday warned the nation's governors that drinking water and wastewater utilities in their states are facing "disabling cyberattacks" by hostile foreign nations that are targeting mission-critical plant operations.

"Disabling cyberattacks are striking water and wastewater systems throughout the United States," Jake Sullivan, assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, and Michael S. Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote in a letter. "These attacks have the potential to disrupt the critical lifeline of clean and safe drinking water, as well as impose significant costs on affected communities."

[...] The letter extended an invitation for secretaries of each state's governor to attend a meeting to discuss better securing the water sector's critical infrastructure. It also announced that the EPA is forming a Water Sector Cybersecurity Task Force to identify vulnerabilities in water systems. The virtual meeting will take place on Thursday.

"EPA and NSC take these threats very seriously and will continue to partner with state environmental, health, and homeland security leaders to address the pervasive and challenging risk of cyberattacks on water systems," Regan said in a separate statement.

Related stories on SoylentNews:
An Online Dump of Chinese Hacking Documents Offers a Rare Window Into Pervasive State Surveillance - 20240229
US Says China's Volt Typhoon Is Readying Destructive Attacks - 20240216
The Internet Enabled Mass Surveillance. A.I. Will Enable Mass Spying - 20231206
Teens With "Digital Bazookas" Are Winning the Ransomware War, Researcher Laments - 20231116
How China Gets Free Intel on Tech Companies' Vulnerabilities - 20230913
Microsoft Links Russia's Military to Cyberattacks in Poland and Ukraine - 20221113
U.S. Charges Four Russian Government Workers With Hacking Energy Sector - 20220327
Microsoft Warns of Destructive Disk Wiper Targeting Ukraine - 20220118
Breached Water Plant Employees Shared Same Password, No Firewall - 20210211
DOJ: Chinese Hackers Stole "Hundreds of Millions of Dollars" of Secrets - 20200722
Chinese Digital Spying is Becoming More Aggressive, Researchers Say - 20200326
Vietnam's Battalions of 'Cyber-Armies' Silencing Online Dissent - 20200117
A New Hardware Implant Shows How Easy It May be to Hide Malicious Chips - 20191013
Congress Mobilizes on Cyber Threats to Electric Grid - 20190715
How a Hacker Network Turned Stolen Press Releases into $100 Million - 20180826
U.S. State and Local Governments Receive Malware-Containing CDs Mailed from China - 20180731
Ukrainian DNC Hack-Author has Turned Himself in and is Cooperating with FBI - 20170816
FIN7 'Cyber-Mafia' Group Giving Heartburn to the U.S. Restaurant Industry - 20170528
Interview with Cybersecurity Expert Jeffrey Carr about Crowdstrike's Russian Hacking Claims - 20170417
Hacker Rigged Elections in Nine Latin American Countries - 20170308
Chinese Businessman Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Hack US Defense Contractors - 20160326
China Hacks on US Continue, Facebook to Warn Users About Potential State-sponsored Attacks - 20151019
CIA Officers Pulled from China Because of OPM Breach - 20151002
North Korean Defector Warns that Hackers Could Kill - 20150530


Original Submission

 
This discussion was created by janrinok (52) for logged-in users only, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Troll) by drussell on Saturday March 23 2024, @09:45PM (2 children)

    by drussell (2678) on Saturday March 23 2024, @09:45PM (#1350008) Journal

    That may be the way the telephone company operates their customer service these days, but do you actually have any evidence that your local water utility is being run and monitored by some schmoo in a cubicle in India?!

    I'm pretty sure that's not a thing!!

    Offshoring hundreds or thousands of call-centre jobs for customer "service" is one thing, but the couple of operations dudes wandering around the local water filtration facility, power station or sewage treatment plant monitoring things plus a few maintenance and engineering staff are probably not being magically outsourced offshore. 🙄

    Anything that requires "$0.50/hr monitoring" is already being taken care of by the PLC itself. Nobody is sitting there, just actively watching some level gauge.

    Water level in tank X gets above level A, open valve Y until level is below setpoint B. If limit switch L,M,N,O,or P is reached at any time, shut down that subsystem and show an alert on the maintenance crew anomaly display panel or whatever. It's all still basically just ladder logic, perhaps with a cellphone dialer at the end in a pinch, I guess...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   0  
       Troll=1, Underrated=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by EJ on Sunday March 24 2024, @01:17AM

    by EJ (2452) on Sunday March 24 2024, @01:17AM (#1350026)

    Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill.

    My response was only to the question of how it COULD make things cheaper.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by wArlOrd on Sunday March 24 2024, @10:29PM

    by wArlOrd (2142) on Sunday March 24 2024, @10:29PM (#1350140)

    Sunday, May 8, 1988, a fire broke out in the main switching room of the Hinsdale Central Office of Illinois Bell

    Who was on site to notice?