America's Drinking Water Is Surprisingly Easy to Poison

[Nevilledog]

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Jack Gillum
@jackgillum
NEW: A feel-good story about the nation's water supply. Just kidding: things aren't great. w/ @peterelkind

America’s Drinking Water Is Surprisingly Easy to Poison
The cyberbreach at a plant in Oldsmar, Florida, which could have resulted in a mass poisoning, was a reminder of a disturbing reality: Despite a decade of warnings, thousands of water systems around…
propublica.org
6:37 AM · Mar 17, 2021

https://www.propublica.org/article/hacking-water-systems

On Feb. 16, less than two weeks after a mysterious attacker made headlines around the world by hacking a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida, and nearly generating a mass poisoning, the city’s mayor declared victory.

“This is a success story,” Mayor Eric Seidel told the City Council in Oldsmar, a Tampa suburb of 15,000, after acknowledging “some deficiencies.” As he put it, “our protocols, monitoring protocols, worked. Our staff executed them to perfection. And as the city manager said, there were other backups. ... We were breached, there’s no question. And we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again. But it’s a success story.” Two council members congratulated the mayor, noting his turn at the press conference where the hack was disclosed. “Even on TV, you were fantastic,” said one.

“Success” is not the word that cybersecurity experts use to describe the Oldsmar episode. They view the breach as a case study in digital ineptitude, a frightening near-miss and an example of how the managers of water systems continue to downplay or ignore years of increasingly dire warnings.

The experts say the sorts of rudimentary vulnerabilities revealed in the breach — including the lack of an internet firewall and the use of shared passwords and outdated software — are common among America’s 151,000 public water systems.

*snip*

[soothsayer]

1. We do it ourselves

[RainCaster]

2. We do it to ourselves

We be screwing ourselves with our "security by obscurity" ideas.

[ancianita]

3. Don't we have an EPA that can send tech and safety advice to mayors and city water managers?