Monday, February 8, 2021

The time an Australian water sewage treatment plant was hacked, causing the spilling of millions of litres of raw sewage

From the Register in 2001:
An Australian man was today sent to prison for two years after he was found guilty of hacking into the Maroochy Shire, Queensland computerised waste management system and caused millions of litres of raw sewage to spill out into local parks, rivers and even the grounds of a Hyatt Regency hotel. 
... 
[He] conducted a series of electronic attacks on the Maroochy Shire sewage control system after a job application he had made was rejected by the area's Council. At the time he was employed by the company that had installed the system.
Two more cyber-attacks have hit Israel's water management facilities, officials from the Water Authority said last week. 
... 
Initial reports played down the April attack, but a Financial Times report from June citing Western intelligence sources claimed that hackers had gained access to some of Israel's water treatment systems and tried altering water chlorine levels before being detected and stopped. If the attack had been successful and water chlorine levels had been adjusted, attackers could have caused mild poisoning of the local population 
... 
Two weeks later, in mid-May, a cyber-attack crippled the port of Shahid Rajaei in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, which the Washington Post, citing the US intelligence sources, linked to Israel, as a likely payback for the April attack.
And an early report of an attack last week in Florida:
Hackers broke into the computer system of a facility that treats water for about 15,000 people near Tampa, Florida and sought to add a dangerous level of additive to the water supply, the Pinellas County Sheriff said on Monday.

The attempt on Friday was thwarted. 
... 
“The guy was sitting there monitoring the computer as he’s supposed to and all of a sudden he sees a window pop up that the computer has been accessed,” Gualtieri said. “The next thing you know someone is dragging the mouse and clicking around and opening programs and manipulating the system.”