This ‘problem’ has been a known problem long time, just like the muni power systems…
Cyberattacks targeting municipal water systems have been reported in at least seven states this week, prompting the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency to warn utilities nationwide that hackers are trying to disrupt critical water infrastructure.
In a public service announcement Thursday, the agencies said water and wastewater utilities have reported incidents to the FBI, with some malicious activity degrading water operations. The announcement does not name the states.
Full article, HERE from NBC News.
The number of systems out there with passwords that literally have NEVER been changed, have almost ‘no’ security on them, yada, yada, yada…
And the responses have been, “Oh, nobody will ever bother ‘us’…”
But think about it, if you don’t have water, or power, what do you do?
Do you have a generator, a cistern? Bottled water? How ‘fresh’ is that bottled water?
No power? How do you cook? How much connectivity will you have when your phone dies, because you can’t charge it? No internet, TV or anything else…
And you won’t be able to buy groceries, since the stores will be without power too…
No gas for you (no power to pump it), etc. etc. etc…
Now what???
How prepared are you?
Truthfully , we (me and the wife) could go a month , but with the current heat I’d be doing it naked , or damn near naked . Probably get poison ivy like crazy this time of year hauling creek water naked to flush the toilet for my wife . I’d do my business outside . Need to get the well pump wired up for my generator , keep putting it off. Contractors out here rurally , are for the most part half assed and unreliable . Wintertime would also bring many more problems to the scenario . Dang Sir , I’m a worrier by nature , now you got my brain going LOL !!
Sorry to laugh at your possible future misery, but this post was hilarious! At the sight of you in that condition, your neighbors would likely shut their blinds quicker than my neighbors when they see me coming with zucchini!
Weaponizing water is an ancient tactic. Hannibal did it. Germans under Rommel surrendered when they drank salt-water pumped into a pipeline by the British at El Alamein.
In an era of non-symmetric warfare it would be stupid to not expect it.
Maybe I’m a bit naive, but I fail to see why anyone would connect a water system, power generating and distribution system or any vital system to an outside network. Yeah, I get the benefits of computer control of various systems, but having anything other than an air gap system seems the height of folly.
I have also thought about that. And in many if not most instances you are correct. The problem lies with remote unmaned facilities. As a Gas Controller it was part of my job to operate valves remotely and to start and stop compressor stations that had no 24 hour personel. We had monthly training on security and 90 day password changes.
One, there are slices of the business and off the IT services world that have never understood security. There are people who have understood security themselves, but have never understood how to persuade anyone to take the idea seriously in practice.
Furthermore, there are two elements to the problem of security in organizations, one of which is an organization view point byzantine generals problem. Security is a domain expertise, so in theory these mildly OCD autistics who want to do a process correctly under their own direction are a valid and effective answer. From the organization’s perspective, this solution gets you a few byzantine generals, and you are statistically certain to be screwed by some of them at any scale, eventually. Which gets you security as bureaucratic standards, and compliance testing. Which is also a thing that does not work, but it feels better to uninvolved managers, and worse to individuals.
Two, we fucked ‘seperate network entirely’ a bunch when Fauci had us switch everything to remote work. There are a ton of key systems that just got hastily and willy nilly hooked to the internet. On the defender side, this is the direct cause of the big pipeline hack the Russians did to prepare for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. (Which the Russians did because they are insane, and because putting in Biden was too much a temptation in their eyes.)
The Lockdown and switch to remote work was another Byzantine generals problem. Then, we had too many people mimmicking the forms of science, and mimicking compliance as a ‘Don’t hurt me’ signal. Because they were not sufficiently embittered about public health administration. But, once embittered, the balance of the swing is not biting again, and we are inured for a time.
But the lockdown was one more pointless destructive thing, and the resources to move the networks back, or to secure the thing now are not entirely available.
The LLM programming revolution is not immediately going to fix any of that. We are going to see the manpower to exploit ‘security through obscurity’ decrease before the money understands the long standing problems.
The LLMs are especially not helpful when the “guardrails” intended to prevent black hats from finding vulnerabilities to exploit also keep white hits from finding vulnerabilities to remove or harden.
Many that weren’t connected were hooked up in 2020 to allow people to work from home to comply with Covid Protocols.
Cooking – one of those butane canister stoves with at least a dozen cans of fuel on hand. Simple ‘warming’ is easy. Mid sized pantry of canned – dried food. Maybe three weeks. Water – three five gallon Reliance cans. Have a Water Bob bladder for bathtub but requires prior filling.
Yeah, about that electricity–
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Metcalf_sniper_attack
More recently–
Xcel recently converted our building to “smart” meters (which they can turn off remotely at will). Their testimony before Congress claims they have never been hacked. Yeah, sure…….
All- Thanks for the comments, and yes, RHT, you are correct! Boats, if I made you ‘think’, I’ll take that as a win!
“Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.”
Our power goes out often enough so that when we went from a shared (uggh!) well to our own, a dedicated off-grid solar system followed on. I had major problems with the propane wall heater, so I have two electric “milkhouse” heaters. One is connected to the solar system, while the other runs on mains power (it works well enough, usually). Both turn on around 50 degrees. The solar electronics adds a few dozen watts of heat, so that helps. Said pumphouse is small, so minimal heat works.
On really cold, snowy, cloudy spells, I can switch the system to mains-only, and in extremis, I can haul the gas powered generator down to charge the batteries. Haven’t needed that in over 7 years.
And yes, the solar system is not connected to the mains power.
Not a prepper but now live on 5 acres surrounded by farms. Seven miles out of town. Rainwater tanks, solar panels plus batteries with LPG generator backup (not used yet in 4 months of winter since we moved in). Septic system. Wood heating with wood from nearby friends farm. Temperatures can get down to zero Celsius but not much below in winter.
Will shortly have hens and grow own vegetables.
Done to get peace and quiet.
There are advantages being off grid. We have solar and a generator, 12; five gal gas cans full gas, a stocked wood shed, a large propane tank at 30% for cooking and lighting, a wood range if we run out of propane. We haul water from the public well half a mile away, if that goes down there is rain barrels, a near by creek and lake and a heavy duty water filter for drinking water. We are in operation Basin, Alaska.
That was we are in Copper Basin, Alaska.
RC- Obviously you’ve thought this through, and have a workable set of alternatives!!!