An alert water system employee in the city of Oldsmar thwarted a sabotage attempt that threatened the health of 15,000 residents. Someone remotely infiltrated the water station’s control computer and added a dangerous amount of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) to the water, but the employee noticed the deviation in time and manually restored the chemical levels to normal.
Sodium hydroxide is added to water in small amounts to reduce acidity. It also helps prevent plumbing clogs, but in high concentrations it can cause irritation of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes of the mouth, as well as throat irritation, temporary hair loss, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The hacker was able to temporarily increase the alkaline content from the usual 100 molecules per million water molecules to 11,100 molecules, more than a hundred times.
“I’m not a chemist, but I can tell you that if you put that much of that substance in the drinking water, it’s not going to be good. The main thing is that the harmful effect turned out to be insignificant and there was no threat to people,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. At this time, no one has been arrested in connection with the incident. It is also unknown whether the hacker operated from within the United States or from abroad. Remote access to the water management computer is temporarily disabled.
The system was compromised on Friday morning. At first, the operator thought his boss had decided to check something. But closer to noon, a second hack occurred, and this time the hacker changed the composition of the water. Fortunately, the employee was alert.
