Cyberattack on water plant shows vulnerability of industrial networks
Summary
The active operator had briefly recorded remote access to the system earlier that morning, as Tampa Bay Times reported on February 8. When the attacker accessed the system again at 1:30pm and drastically increased the chemical input, the operator was fortunately sitting in front of the screen and was surprised that someone had taken over his mouse. Even if subsequent security layers likely would have reported the massive increase in the chemical sooner or later, it is doubtful that the tampering would have been averted if the attacker had been a bit more sophisticated. In addition, an industrial endpoint protection system would have added the ability to automatically prevent certain operations directly on the remotely controlled assets. It is a principle of literally all cybersecurity approaches and standards that only a systematic set-up of complementary measures – both organizational as well as technical – can lead to a proper level of security.
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