Cybersecurity and Our Water
- Dr. Jane LeClair
- Apr 23
- 1 min read
Water facilities
by Charles Parker, II
When we read about new compromises or watch the news stores of the “sophisticated attacks”, the targets have mostly been hospitals, municipalities (e.g., the city of Atlanta), and other industries where there is a mass amount of data and/or where the business operations are critical.
An industry that is attacked regularly which hasn’t received the press it should are the wat treatment facilities. A water system which has been successfully attacked and polluted, treatment chemicals maliciously adjusted, or wastewater not treated, has an immediate impact on the people in the municipality and all the businesses using the water for consumption, cleaning, or other use cases. Depending on the malicious activities, this can have immediate life and death implications. With the recent recorded attacks involving the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa’s booster station in Pennsylvania (2023), the industry should have more focus on it.
These operations have many of the same issues of municipalities in general with budgetary constraints. These areas of the critical infrastructure require the appropriate level of funding to protect the services and citizens.
About the Author-
Charles Parker II has been working in the info sec field for over a decade, in the banking, medical, automotive, and staffing industries. Charles has matriculated and attained the MBA, MSA, JD, LLM, and is in the final stage of the PhD in Information Assurance and Security (ABD) from Capella University. Mr. Parker’s areas of interest include cryptography, AV, and SCADA.
Kommentare