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[iconmaster]

Hacker Tried to Poison Florida City's Water Supply, Police Say

The hacker tried to drastically increase sodium hydroxide levels in the water, Pinellas County, Florida, officials said on Monday.

www.vice.com

On Monday officials from Pinellas County in Florida announced that an unidentified hacker remotely gained access to a panel that controls the City of Oldsmar's water treatment system, and changed a setting that would have drastically increased the amount of sodium hydroxide in the water supply.

"The hacker changed the sodium hydroxide from about one hundred parts per million, to 11,100 parts per million," Gualtieri said, adding that these were "dangerous" levels. When asked if this should be considered an attempt at bioterrorism, Gualtieri said, "What it is is someone hacked into the system not just once but twice ... opened the program and changed the levels from 100 to 11,100 parts per million with a caustic substance. So, you label it however you want, those are the facts."

This is a scary development. Infrastructure hacking by nation-states has been seen before, but at the moment this seems like some kid fooling around for the lulz. You can talk about needing better cybersecurity on All the Things, but in all likelihood you're never going to get that at the municipal level except for very large cities.

 

[ManofOne]

That's not a hacker, that's a terrorist.

 

[poodaddy]

Here's hoping they can identify the subhuman and lock him up for attempted murder. Piece of shit human being.

 

[TheTechnician]

growing up in Germany and hearing all the rumors about the general quality of the US Water supply, this feels like - where is the difference between terrorrists and your Government??

 

[iconmaster]

growing up in Germany and hearing all the rumors about the general quality of the US Water supply, this feels like - where is the difference between terrorrists and your Government??

That's interesting, I wasn't aware the US water supply was thought poorly of. What were you told? There are some known issues in more rural areas, and I don't wish to minimize those.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

growing up in Germany and hearing all the rumors about the general quality of the US Water supply, this feels like - where is the difference between terrorrists and your Government??

Flint Michigan is not the entire US. Most places here have access to good, clean drinking water.

Drinking water quality in the United States - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[GeekyDad]

...hacking by nation-states has been seen before, but at the moment this seems like some kid fooling around for the lulz. ...

Well, the U.S. opened the flood gates for this with their "Stuxnet" tech, which was (who didn't see it coming), of course, thrown back at them by the very nation they were fucking with. How there can be any claim they didn't foresee this spreading...considering how smart so many up-and-coming tech junkies are, if that is indeed what this particular incident is.

Crazy fucking times.

 

[Tesseract]

 

[Peggies]

growing up in Germany and hearing all the rumors about the general quality of the US Water supply, this feels like - where is the difference between terrorrists and your Government??

Now that's a bit harsh, don't you think?

And you Germans shut up about your water. It's nothing compared to Vienna's high spring tap water.

 

[bender]

Most places here have access to good, clean drinking water.

 

[teezzy]

Misread the thread title as "hooker"

My story better

 

[bender]

Misread the thread title as "hooker"

My story better

 

[Spaceman292]

That's interesting, I wasn't aware the US water supply was thought poorly of. What were you told? There are some known issues in more rural areas, and I don't wish to minimize those.

Honestly it's mostly just the Flint Michigan thing. Although that's abhorrent enough to shame the whole country.

 

[UnNamed]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

I’m an American who hates ice in my water. I also own a kettle.

 

[Blitzmangoman]

Why is there even an option to put the setting to toxic levels in the first place? There should be fail-safes.

 

[GeekyDad]

Why is there even an option to put the setting to toxic levels in the first place? There should be fail-safes.

Which I'm guessing exist and likely can all be bypassed, since again, controlled within the tech.

 

[Blitzmangoman]

Which I'm guessing exist and likely can all be bypassed, since again, controlled within the tech.

Ok that is/could be the answer to the fail-safe bit. Why are there settings to get to toxic levels? I guess only a water treatment engineer/worker or someone like that could answer this. :/

 

[GAMETA]

Why is there even an option to put the setting to toxic levels in the first place? There should be fail-safes.

Probably all digital... which makes a point for dials.

 

[BigBooper]

Why are so many of these systems network connected?

 

[EverydayBeast]

There’s no shame in hacking a states water supply network there’s times where Flint, MI thinks they’ve been hacked there’s millions of people in the world with poor water supplies.

 

[Night.Ninja]

What if the water was already poisoned

 

[Hudo]

That's interesting, I wasn't aware the US water supply was thought poorly of. What were you told? There are some known issues in more rural areas, and I don't wish to minimize those.

Can confirm that one of the stereotypes (dunno if it's true or not) about the US in Germany is that you shouldn't drink the tap water over there. When I was visiting in Austin, TX, I never drank from the tap because of this, lol.
I know it is likely bullshit but if you grow up with certain stereotypes....they kinda linger in your head.

 

[BigBooper]

Can confirm that one of the stereotypes (dunno if it's true or not) about the US in Germany is that you shouldn't drink the tap water over there. When I was visiting in Austin, TX, I never drank from the tap because of this, lol.
I know it is likely bullshit but if you grow up with certain stereotypes....they kinda linger in your head.

I live in rural US and I also don't drink straight tap water, especially when in big cities. Filtered water only. The weirdest water ever was in Las Vegas. It felt so greasy, like I could never get clean. You wash your hands with soap and it never stopped feeling slippery. I'm sure that was probably water softening at the hotel, but it was real weird. No way I'd drink that from the tap.

 

[iconmaster]

Can confirm that one of the stereotypes (dunno if it's true or not) about the US in Germany is that you shouldn't drink the tap water over there. When I was visiting in Austin, TX, I never drank from the tap because of this, lol.
I know it is likely bullshit but if you grow up with certain stereotypes....they kinda linger in your head.

Weird! I lived in Austin for 7 years and drank plenty of tap water. I prefer filtered, but I've never been anywhere in the US with bad tap water.

 

[Hudo]

I live in rural US and I also don't drink straight tap water, especially when in big cities. Filtered water only. The weirdest water ever was in Las Vegas. It felt so greasy, like I could never get clean. You wash your hands with soap and it never stopped feeling slippery. I'm sure that was probably water softening at the hotel, but it was real weird. No way I'd drink that from the tap.

Weird! I lived in Austin for 7 years and drank plenty of tap water. I prefer filtered, but I've never been anywhere in the US with bad tap water.

Well, now I really don't know what to do next time I'm visiting, haha.

 

[partime]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

Gotta fill that shit up with ice, just 'cause.


Live in CA and my ice maker is integrated in the refrigerator. Ice is a commodity and most people have easy access to it. I lived in Europe over a decade ago and dude they'd put like 2 ice cubes in my soda. Like for real?!

 

[BigBooper]

Well, now I really don't know what to do next time I'm visiting, haha.

I fully expect the US tap water is on par with every other major developed country.

 

[AJUMP23]

Find the person, lock them up. Install better security in the water supply.

 

[Ikutachi]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

You consume less per sip, the ice melting over time is a mini-refill, and the cold masks any off-taste. What's not to like?

 

[Tesseract]

I’m an American who hates ice in my water. I also own a kettle.

 

[John2290]

growing up in Germany and hearing all the rumors about the general quality of the US Water supply, this feels like - where is the difference between terrorrists and your Government??

Well the America is a little bigger than Germany. Make your comparison again but include western and southern Russia along with Northern most Africa and you have something along the scope and bio diversity the US has. Tbh, I'm surprised there isn't a story of a someone dying from a flesh eating disease every morning never mind them actually managing to standardize the water supply to an acceptable level of quality. It's pretty impressive what they've done not only for drinking water but irrigation in general. You can criticize them on a lot of their shitty infrastracture like their shitty out dated power grid but I don't think you can criticize them on what they've done with water, roads or other critical infrastructure. They took the most diverse continent on Earth, took the largest swath of it and laid out the plans to an insane degree of quality that some smaller but economically similar countries took a half century to catch up and many nations are still catching up today, some that have caught up or seemingly outpaced have already starting falling apart as is the case with China and it's same infrastructure.

 

[royox]

Hacker Tried to Poison Florida City's Water Supply, Police Say

The hacker tried to drastically increase sodium hydroxide levels in the water, Pinellas County, Florida, officials said on Monday.

www.vice.com

This is a scary development. Infrastructure hacking by nation-states has been seen before, but at the moment this seems like some kid fooling around for the lulz. You can talk about needing better cybersecurity on All the Things, but in all likelihood you're never going to get that at the municipal level except for very large cities.

Looks like a Jack Bauer's 24 episode lol.

 

[Soodanim]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

I don't want to be presumptuous, but I suspect it may have something to do with wanting the drink to be cold

 

[West Texas CEO]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

When you put the ice cube in the water, it has a lower temperature and therefore less heat (transfer of "movement") per gram than liquid water (so ice is like the "slow ball.") The liquid water molecules, which are moving faster and have higher kinetic energy, give the molecules in the ice some of their kinetic energy when they collide. Remember that solid water is a crystal, and its molecules don't really move. The transfer of kinetic energy causes molecules to start moving, which disrupts the crystal and turns it into liquid water. So I suppose the transfer of heat occurs "during" the phase change. The water becomes cold since it loses (overall) kinetic energy to the ice, the same way the fast-moving ball loses momentum to the slower one.

Thermal energy goes from "hot" to "cold." Kinetic energy transfers indicate heat; cold is only the absence of these transfers. In summation, there is a net energy transfer so you can enjoy a cool beverage on a hot summer day!

 

[AJUMP23]

Still don't know why Americans drinks water with ice. Explain.

When it is hot, we like things that are cold. I drink sweet tea with Ice too.

 

[nkarafo]

What are the fail-safe precautions for this system though? What if the hacker succeeded?

What if the person who is operating this "panel" has a mental breakdown because his wife left him and want to cause harm to everyone?