CISA released an urgent message warning water utilities to disconnect their logic controllers from the internet in the face of rising cyberattacks.
The hacks target internet-facing programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that control equipment and allow machinery to communicate. They monitor and control the water pressure, chemical dosing, and other factors to ensure the water is safe.
Many of the PLCs are apparently open to the internet and use default credentials, allowing a remote attacker to easily take them over.
I assume it is this CISA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersecurity_and_Infrastructure_Security_Agency
If budget weren’t an issue, how many clones of your teams would it take to do that for all the water systems in the US in five years?
What are the odds that the average muncipality understands the security implications of just existing on the internet these days?
10 people per site, per incident, at 50-70 hours/week.
It’s thankless work and the people in control don’t typically take on contractors. They underpay the actual IR staff. That’s why I left the industry. It’s a big buddy-system network. Really fucked.
So to sweep all of the water systems in the country in advance isn’t doable in any time frame?
IR isn’t an acronym I’m familiar with.
Incident response, basically getting pulled in to clean up someone else’s fuck up that got them owned.