Loading ...The recent failure of SCADA security system at a water processing plant in the US has raised questions on the ability of this system to protect the nation’s infrastructure. The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) security systems are used remotely to control the supply of public infrastructure such as electricity, gas, water, etc.
The SCADA system failure at a municipal water processing plant in Springfield is suspected to be the handiwork of some hackers. It is also suspected that the hackers might be Russians. According to sources, the hackers managed to get into the poor SCADA security system and turned the water pump on and off repeatedly, leading to the failure of the pump.
According to the Reuters newswire, “The pump was apparently remotely activated and burnt out, though redundant systems meant to impact was felt by residents of the town.”
According to the investigation taken on the matter, it was discovered that though the attack had started from the month of September 2011, it was discovered only on 8 November, 2011.
This attack is said to be similar to the attack on Massachusetts Institute of Technology – an attack on the phpMyAdmin software (tool to create, modify, and delete database). A report from the National Vulnerability Database has it that the phpMyadmin has almost 105 reported security vulnerabilities.
All those in charge of managing the infrastructure security should take a serious look into the matter. They should also prevent any such incident in the future. It shows the negligibility of the authorities toward basic infrastructure.
The Department of Homeland Security should take strict measures for the infrastructure security and see to it that attackers are not given any chance for such attacks in the future. The SCADA control system should also be updated so that it is not vulnerable for attack by hackers again.
