-By Warner Todd Huston
Looks like a water pump at a Springfield, Illinois water pumping station was shut off by a cyber attack by an Internet hacker using a Russian ip address, according to a recent report by a cybersecurity blogger named Joe Weiss.
The Department of Homeland Security is denying Weiss’ claims, but says it has launched an investigation of the incident.
Weiss says he got the report from the Public Water District Cyber Intrusion report released by the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center (STIC) on Nov. 10.
The hacker evidently breached the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA), the system that controls many operations at industrial facilities, and stole usernames and passwords which were then used to shut the pump down.
State employees, though, are not entirely sure that this really was a cyber attack. It is unclear as to what really happened. The pumps may have shut down through a mechanical error or other cause.
But if this was a cyber attack it would be scary news, indeed.
“This is a big deal,” Weiss told the Washington Post. “It was tracked to Russia. It has been in the system for at least two to three months. It has caused damage. We don’t know how many other utilities are currently compromised.”
If Russian hackers — and that means the Russian government — are testing their capabilities to hack into and interfere in American command and control computers that could signal an escalation in espionage by our reputed ally. Worse, with Russia’s continued close ties to China, it could be a capability they’d be willing to sell a true enemy.
**UPDATE**
Investigators now claim that this incident was not a “foreign hacker” as originally feared. It was but the result of a contractor that worked for the water department that happened to be remotely accessing the water station from his computer as he traveled on personal business in Russia.