Intelligence Agencies of United States have warned the authorities managing the rural water utility systems of the rising threat of cyber attacks. The threat level might double up in near future as more water systems try to cut costs by moving towards full automation.
In order to assist small water systems in this area, Department of Homeland Security and US EPA have created some guidelines on this note.
Helen Jackson, who works with the DHS office of Cyber Security and Communications has offered a perception on the threat utilities faced today. Jackson said that the threats to water utilities can come in different forms like ransomware, where hackers lock a database and demand a ransom to unlock it. The other form of threat is from the insider who once was granted access by the utility by his/her employer.
The 2015 IBM survey was cited as a reference document claiming that half of corporate cyber security threats are from insiders who worked for an organization and for some reason had to leave the job.
David Travers, the director of EPA’s water security division has also added automated water utility systems as access points to hackers.
Travers suggested that all those managing water utilities should make to go through tabletop simulation based on the standards of National Institute of Standards and Technology which help them combat against any kind of cyber attacks.
He added that if this point is ignored, then any hacker in the world can gain access to connected water utilities and manipulate the mixing quantity of Chlorine to poison the entire water utility. Now, to all those who think that can this really take place in reality..?
Yes, is the answer of Cybersecurity insiders.
For more details, just follow the following link
Ransomware could be used to poison your town’s water utility
