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CISA Releases Guidance Urging Water Treatment Facilities to Disconnect Equipment From the Internet (www.privacyguides.org)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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CISA released an urgent message warning water utilities to disconnect their logic controllers from the internet in the face of rising cyberattacks.

The hacks target internet-facing programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that control equipment and allow machinery to communicate. They monitor and control the water pressure, chemical dosing, and other factors to ensure the water is safe.

Many of the PLCs are apparently open to the internet and use default credentials, allowing a remote attacker to easily take them over.

I assume it is this CISA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersecurity_and_Infrastructure_Security_Agency

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[–] 10 points 3 months ago

"No, their platform doesn’t support any real secure protocols and won’t route over a VPN, it needs to be on the same subnet as the devices. [...]"

They won't know that much. They don't understand that their job isn't running a water department, it's running the computers that maintain the water department and that includes security. For someone familiar with computer security it's easy to recognize negligence, but until the law sees it as criminal negligence nothing's going to change.

Small town municipal water departments aren't going to be able to afford the guy holding the shield against international state actors.

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