Israel’s Water Supply was reportedly hit by a coordinated cyberattack on Friday and Saturday (April 24th-25th 2020) of last week. However, reports are in that no noted damage to ‘Programmable Logic Controllers’ or compromise of systems was witnessed in the cyber incident.
And as a precautionary measure, the water supplying company authorities changed their passwords of control systems related to water supply, pumping, and sewage on the advice of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate.
A statement issued early today by Israel’s National Cyber Directorate has confirmed that an attack did take place on command and control systems of wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations, and sewage. But failed to mention any information regarding the attack genre, the impact, and the mitigating efforts.
All relevant companies and institutions indulging in the water supply were urged to change their passwords on an immediate note and have been asked to upgrade their software and hardware channels with the latest updates.
Daniel Lacker, the head of Water Authority’s Security Department has assured that the security of the command and control systems will be upgraded soon to avoid any untoward in the future. Nevertheless, he failed to confirm the attack was state-funded.
Note- Cyber Attacks on water utilities can spell trouble and in some cases claim lives of the innocent populace. For instance, if the chlorine discharge into the water treatment facility is intercepted and altered to be high, it can cause health issues like nausea, stomach troubles, digestion issues, skin allergies, and in rare cases death in people who consume it.
