On February 5th, 2021, cyber terrorists remotely gained access to the internal system of a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida, and nearly succeeded in poisoning the drinking water supply. The hackers briefly increased the supply of sodium hydroxide by a factor of over 100. Fortunately, water treatment plant workers quickly recognized the attack and resolved the problem. But make no mistake – this was a very close call, and it could’ve had dire, likely fatal consequences.

 

So, what does this incident tell us about our preparedness to handle cyber attacks on systems that have major repercussions on the health and well-being of the public? That is focus of today’s episode. Today I speak with Priya Venkadesh and Elena Montaña from CTG’s Counter Intelligence & CYBER team to learn about the scope of the problem as well as what we can do to fix it.