According to police, an attempt to contaminate the water supply of a city in Florida with sodium hydroxide failed despite a hacker gaining remote access to the computer system of the local water purification plant.
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Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told a news conference on Monday that a factory worker at the city of Oldsmar’s water treatment facility first noticed unusual activity with his computer system at 8 a.m. Friday when a hacker briefly gained access to the system. has.
Around 1:30 p.m., a hacker regained access to the system, controlling the mouse and sending it to the software that controls the water treatment. The hacker briefly increases the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid effluent cleaners. It is also used to control water acidity and remove metals from drinking water at treatment plants.
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After the hacker left the system, a worker was able to intervene at the plant and reverse the change.
“Because the operator noticed the increase and immediately lowered it, there was at no time a significant adverse effect on the water being treated,” Gualtieri said. “It’s important that the public was never in danger.”
Gualtieri noted that even if the worker did not intervene immediately, it would take between 24 and 36 hours to hit the water supply system, and that there are other guarantees where the water would be checked before it was released.
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After the correction, the worker notified a supervisor who disabled remote access to the system.
Police were notified of the incident late Friday afternoon, and the digital forensic unit is working to determine the cause of the offense and to identify the individual or individuals responsible. Gualtieri added that although the suspect remains unknown, police have the clues they are following.
It is currently unknown why the Oldsmar system was targeted and whether the offense originated in the United States or outside the country. Gualtieri noted that the police “have no knowledge of any illegal access to other systems.”
Oldsmar is about 15 miles northwest of Tampa. The incident took place the same weekend as Super Bowl LV at Raymond Jay Stadium, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9.
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In addition to disabling remote access, City Manager Al Braithwaite said the treatment plant will make additional upgrades to the system to ensure the incident does not happen again.
Police are asking all government agencies in the Tampa Bay area to actively review their computer security protocols and make the necessary updates that are “in line with the latest practices”.
“These types of activities and this type of critical infrastructure burglary are not necessarily limited to water supply systems,” Gualtieri warned. “It can be anything, it can be sewer systems, it can be a whole range of things. It can be really problematic, and this is where we want to make sure we spend everything on it.”
The incident is being investigated by the sheriff’s office in Pinella County as well as federal partners at the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.
Associated Press contributed to this report