Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation’s drinking water.
About 70% of utilities inspected by federal officials over the last year violated standards meant to prevent breaches or other intrusions, the agency said. Officials urged even small water systems to improve protections against hacks. Recent cyberattacks by groups affiliated with Russia and Iran have targeted smaller communities.
Some water systems are falling short in basic ways, the alert said, including failure to change default passwords or cut off system access to former employees. Because water utilities often rely on computer software to operate treatment plants and distribution systems, protecting information technology and process controls is crucial, the EPA said. Possible impacts of cyberattacks include interruptions to water treatment and storage; damage to pumps and valves; and alteration of chemical levels to hazardous amounts, the agency said.
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McCabe named China, Russia and Iran as the countries that are “actively seeking the capability to disable U.S. critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater.”
Why are any of them not air gapped?
I’ve worked on SCADA systems for water automation in a municipal water supply. The meters, valve positions, and sensors can have a tunnel back to the main office and generally aren’t accessible unless someone physically breaks into something. With a proper remote solution it’s pretty secure (as secure as anything, anyway) to access and manage things from anywhere cutting down water waste and time when problems occur.
The issue, as usual, is people. I can’t tell the story, but I can say that managers and higher ups at municipal water departments will override decisions to make things more accessible without proper protections because they refuse to understand the concept of even the most basic security. Not every water department, obviously, but I can absolutely point to several that will demand easy access with no VPN because they want to use their fucking home computer, and when you won’t provide it they’ll hire someone else who will.