Foreign Terrorism on U.S. Water Utility
Shall We Play a Game? In what could be the start of a different war, investigators from the federal government are determining the significance of a report that hackers remotely shut down a utility's water pump in central Illinois last week. This could be the first known foreign cyberspace attack on an industrial system in the United States.
On November 8, 2011 the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center issued a one-page report. The attackers accessed the water utility's network with stolen credentials the software company that designed the industry control systems.
More attacks on water utility networks could be coming soon. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are handling the matter, said spokesperson Peter Boogaard. There is “no credible … threat” is all anyone from the federal government has said thus far.
Reports from media sources say the location of the attack was Springfield, the state capital of Illinois. But Illinois state officials deny that too. The FBI won't talk to anyone.
As reported by Reuters, a Russian computer was used to hack into the system according to computer logs examined by an information and technology services and computer repair company.
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