Malefactors received remote control over water treatment system of one of the US water treatment plants

I once watched a movie about hackers who were able to control the energy system, the water supply system, and even the road navigation of a city (or country?). As far as I remember, the attackers almost collapsed the control system of the whole country, and all thanks to the fact that all the controls were in their hands. The film was shown at the beginning of the two thousandth, so then all this was perceived as fiction. But little by little, the ideas shown in that film (the name, unfortunately, I don’t remember), are also beginning to be realized by real attackers. So, recently it became known that unknown individuals managed to penetrate into the control system of a water treatment plant of one of the US companies, and managed the equipment remotely.

So far, this incident has been investigated by Applied Control Solutions. The head of this company said that he first meets with a similar case. Most likely, experts say, the attackers were initially able to somehow inject Trojan software into the station management system (the SCADA system was infected). And then they took control under their control. An interesting point is also the fact that the "illuminated" addresses from which the attack was conducted, appear on the Russian IP segment. At the same time, experts believe that all this can be fabricated, that is, the addresses are false.

According to representatives of the company Applied Control Solutions, the water treatment plant was attacked on November 10, and the attackers controlled its equipment for two days. After a couple of days, this fact was discovered, and an investigation into the incident began. It is believed that hackers were able to manage almost any station equipment. Such management has led to the fact that one of the water injection pumps to the station has failed. In addition, other equipment suffered, although not so badly.
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In general, what matters is not that the hackers were able to manage a particular water treatment plant of a particular company, but the fact that it is actually possible is used. There is a possibility that the hackers simply tried their own strength at one of the offshore stations. Talking about what the consequences may be of seizing control over the water treatment plants of a large settlement is likely to be superfluous. We all understand what can happen.

By the way, back in 2000, a water treatment plant operator who was offended by his management, with the help of a stolen software and radio control system, was able to gain control over the entire station system. As a result, millions of liters of wastewater were dumped into the river, and carried to the sea. The sea and river ecosystem perished, and there are still significant problems in that region (Queensland, Australia).

Via CNET