Hacker attempts to poison water supply of Florida city

 

Local and federal authorities are investigating how a hacker was able to remotely gain access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt at what could have amounted to a mass poisoning.

A mysterious hacker infiltrated a computer for the water treatment system of the city of Oldsmar, near Tampa, and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, by a factor of more than 100, the Pinellas county sheriff, Bob Gualtieri, said on Monday.

The hacker briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide (lye) in Oldsmar's water treatment system, but a worker spotted it and reversed the action.

Lye is used in small amounts to control acidity but a large amount could have caused major problems in the water.

Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel said: "There's a bad actor out there."

No arrests have yet been made and it is not known if the hack was done from within the US or outside.

A computer controlling Oldsmar's water treatment system was remotely accessed on Friday.

A plant operator saw an attempt to access the system in the morning but assumed it was his supervisor, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

But another attempt was made early in the afternoon and this time the hacker accessed the treatment software and increased the sodium hydroxide content from 100 parts per million to 11,100 ppm.

The operator immediately reduced the level to normal.