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Interruptions in the ability to have water come out of the faucet are not limited to breakages in city water mains. There seems to be a disagreement as to whether a cyber-attack on local water plants in the midwest may have occured.
On Nov. 8, a municipal water district employee in Illinois noticed problems with the city’s water pump control system, and a technician determined the system had been remotely hacked into from a computer located in Russia, said Joe Weiss, an industry security expert who obtained a copy of an Illinois state fusion center report describing the incident.
“This is a big deal,” said Weiss. The report stated it is unknown how many other systems might be affected.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a water plant in Springfield, Ill. had been damaged, but spokesman Peter Boogaard said officials had not yet determined that the water pump failure was caused by a cyber-attack. “DHS and the FBI are gathering facts surrounding the report of a water pump failure in Springfield, Illinois. At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety,” he said.
Water storage or an independent water source is important!
Last edited by lifelongMOgal; 11-18-2011 at 02:30 PM..
As I posted in another thread, I was in CT (next to RI) during the October snowstorm, when the power outages were all over the state. For the people with wells, that meant NO water (due to well pumps), and in order to shower, they had to go to local high schools who offered that service. And of course many of the stores were out of water, so there wasn't much drinking water until the state sent trucks around with it.
So I agree 100% with your premise. That is the reason why we purchased the above-ground swimming pool that holds 4,500 gals of water. Some on this forum think it's foolish to use a pool for that...cost was $250 to hold 4,500 gals, vs $700 for a plastic cystern that only holds 500 gals. Our pool will be housed in its own "shed" that will be semi-heated all winter, and of course, nobody will ever swim in it, thereby reducing the wear and tear by about 95%.
All in all, a good deal, we think. Oh yeah - we have plenty of patches, too!
Wow, thanks for posting this, LMG! I hadn't heard about it and the implications are utterly chilling. As the man said, "This is a big deal."
When I stop to think about how overwhelmed water utility operators are already in protecting all their water sources, reservoirs, storage tanks, pumping stations, treatment plants and thousands of miles of pipes against PHYSICAL sabotage, it blows my mind at the possibilities for interruption of water services if concerted CYBER attacks are added to that burden.
I grew up on a farm where the well went dry every summer, necessitating showers at the Y and filling up empty milk jugs at town spigots to get by until the rains replenished the well. You could say it scarred me for life about cherishing water in all its forms -- or you could say it taught me one of prepping's most valuable lessons: secure multiple sources of water for your family even before amassing canned foods.
We have a pond, a rain collection system of nine connected barrels, dozens of filled and treated two-liter soda bottles, an Aquarain water filter, Lifestraws, and a year-round stream a mile away.
Every prepper should read that article -- thanks again!
Thats ok with the pool, only if you keep it properly chlorinated!! Air borne bacteria and what nots can get into that shed, (Unless its completely air tight and insulated), and pollute the water, so you need to keep a proper cholorine residual in it... "1ppm" would be sufficient, as this would guarantee that all bacteria has been 'satisfied' (Killed). Municipalities often has a residual of 2ppm to make sure that the 'stuff' in the water towers or resevoirs are killed by cholination-->(I wont even begin to tell you what gets up in those towers sheesh).
Though, I have seen algae in chorinated water before, so, if you see any, (though a dark place will 'help', it wont stop algae that is prevelant in the air, (spores), from developing unless its chorinated.
Also, I might add, Ive been to some of these new plants, and, they have computers for EVERYTHING!!
They can monitor the doors, (open and close them with the computer, and know if someone has been through one). The computers operates pumping stations from the Plant, and the various pumps in the plant. They operate lights and all facets of plant operations now, those that are built with in the last 10 years or less.
Its scary how much of this can be 'hacked', and its why, most of the computers in the plants are not online, or, dedicated lines, because of this... Someone must have been slacking and taking shortcuts, not to have dedicated lines and used open DSL lines instead.
...we purchased the above-ground swimming pool that holds 4,500 gals of water. Some on this forum think it's foolish to use a pool for that...cost was $250 to hold 4,500 gals, vs $700 for a plastic cystern that only holds 500 gals. Our pool will be housed in its own "shed" that will be semi-heated all winter, and of course, nobody will ever swim in it, thereby reducing the wear and tear by about 95%.
All in all, a good deal, we think. Oh yeah - we have plenty of patches, too!
Although you don't mention it, I assume that the water stored in the pool is for showers, laundry, plants etc., but not for consumption by humans or animals. It's not safe for drinking, particularly not long-term, unless it's rated as such. That's why cisterns are more expensive.
This is unsettling -- now it's being reported in Texas:
Images posted online suggest that hackers may have gained unauthorized access to computers controlling a second water treatment facility, a claim that raises additional concerns about of the security of the US's critical infrastructure.
Five computer screenshots posted early Friday purport to show the user interface used to monitor and control equipment at the Water and Sewer Department for the City of South Houston, Texas. They were posted by someone calling himself pr0f to counter comments included in a Register article posted on Thursday in which a US Department of Homeland Security spokesman responded to reports of an attack on a separate water plant by saying there was no “credible corroborated data” indicating critical infrastructure was at risk.
What did the hacker have to say?
“I dislike, immensely, how the DHS tend to downplay how absolutely F*CKED the state of national infrastructure is,” the post stated. “I've also seen various people doubt the possibility an attack like this could be done.”
And here's another revelation to make you shudder, from an individual who programs water systems for a living:
One of the more disturbing things that goes on these days is that a fair amount of programming is being done in China, India, and even Russia. There is no way to validate the security measures in most cases when someone half way across the world has to have access to it. And many times people have so many passwords that they can't remember them so they create text files or spreadsheets with the lists of passwords in them, and often these files are stored on networks and computers that are not secure at all.
It is also common for user names and passwords to be the same for the same person on multiple networks and locations to make it easier.
Another issue is that it is quite common for people to share user accounts and passwords because it is so inconvenient to have unique user accounts and passwords for every user, especially when you have remote users in India that you don't even know are programming your system.
Some of these security issues just do not have very good answers to them.
(From another forum -- PM me if you would like to know which one.)
City and State governments are allowed to offshore work while the Federal Government is not.
I've seen plenty a government software project get shipped off to foreign sites like India, China and Brazil.
If you don't have the space on your property for an underground water storage tank, you can store water indoors in plastic barrels designed for this purpose. The barrels are expensive, ugly, they take up floor space, and they need a pump to get the water out, but they will allow you to stay in your house longer after the public water system shuts down or is polluted and they are unlikely to accidently burst and flood your house. It's also a good idea to have a few gallon bottles of plain bleach for sterlizing any municpal water that has sat in your water barrels for a year or more. The lable on the back of the bleach bottle tells you how to use bleach to treat suspect water. Bleach is cheaper than water purification tablets and works well without leaving a nasty taste -- I've used both in foreign countries and bleach is far better.
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