this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026
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467
CISA Releases Guidance Urging Water Treatment Facilities to Disconnect Equipment From the Internet (www.privacyguides.org)
submitted 3 weeks ago by new_otters_raft@piefed.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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

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[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Went on the public tour of our local waste-treatment facility. Really fascinating stuff. Highly recommend it if you're even slightly curious.

There are definitely industrial-scale automation systems. Mostly PLCs, but also SCADA for monitoring. Lots of 20-30 year-old tech. Those networks have no reason to be connected to the internet.

But there were also office equipment and personal devices everywhere. All it takes is for someone wanting to monitor the state of a digester on their laptop from home.

You just crossed the beams.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Automation engineer here who does a lot of SCADA

There are soooo many good ways to securely monitor stuff from home. But especially in critical infrastructure it's just usually air gapped which is unbeatable in cyber security.

Tours of any local facility are super cool! I find it all so interesting, seeing how the things we use work!

[–] Buckshot@programming.dev 6 points 3 weeks ago

I worked on new SCADA for a water company across all theirs sites. Previously they were a mismatch of different systems and all airgapped.

They standardised everything and put them all on VPN. Suddenly you could access the secure water treatment works with 24/7 security guards and the control room was a bunker, from the unmanned rural sewage works with a portacabin for the server, the key hidden under a brick, and wifi for the PLCs.

The sewage works had always operated like that because it was deemed low risk. No one considered the VPN changed the threat model.

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