Florida Security Incident Highlights Need for Cybersecurity Precautions June 29, 2021 By Jennifer Wilson Security, Utility Management cybersecurity 0 Oldsmar, Florida made national headlines after experiencing a remote breach of their chemical control system earlier this year. The hacker, whose identity and intent has not yet been identified, increased the sodium hydroxide feed by more than 100-fold, but the change was quickly overridden by the operator who saw the breach occur. The operator then disabled remote access and contacted local authorities. This technical brief from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (shared via Michigan WEA) provides an in-depth overview of incident as well as potential broader impacts, including attacks inspired by the methods used in Oldsmar. This is just the most recent example of hackers exploiting utility cybersecurity vulnerabilities and undoubtedly you may be wondering if your system is doing enough to prevent this type of intrusion or has the safeguards in place to respond in the event of a breach. The U.S. EPA released a new Cybersecurity Best Practices page and we recommend the Cybersecurity Incident Action Checklist as the best place to begin your own self-assessment. Comments are closed.