A small Florida city’s water supply was the target of a hacking attack.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced on Monday that the FBI and other federal agencies are working with local law enforcement to investigate the Friday cyberattack, which targeted the city of Oldsmar’s water treatment facility. He said the hacker was able to gain access to the facility’s operating system and tried to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide in the water supply from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
“This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase,” Gualtieri said during a news conference. “Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners. It is used to control water acidity and remove metals from drinking water in water treatment plants.”
Oldsmar is a city of about 15,000 people located northeast of Tampa, which hosted the Super Bowl on Sunday.
While the hacker was able to get into the system, the intrusion was quickly noticed by the operator of the facility, who saw the hacker moving the cursor around on the system’s computer screen and was able to reverse changes before it could affect the infrastructure, Gualtieri said.
The sheriff emphasized that “the public was never in danger” and that “at no time was there a significant adverse effect on the water being treated.”
“Even if the plant operator had not quickly reversed the increased amount of sodium hydroxide, it would have taken between 24 and 36 hours for that water to hit the water supply system, and there are redundancies in place where the water had been checked before it was released,” Gualtieri explained.
“The important thing is to put everyone on notice, and I think that is really the purpose of today is to make sure that everyone realizes that these kinds of bad actors are out there, it’s happening, so really take a hard look at what you have in place,” Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel said.
Gualtieri said that there are no suspects in the hack yet but noted his office, along with federal authorities, are following leads in the case. He said they are also working to figure out from where the hack originated and why Oldsmar was targeted.
When contacted by the Washington Examiner, the FBI said: “FBI Tampa is working with the city of Oldsmar and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, offering resources and assistance in the investigation of this incident. We do not have further comment.”
