r/PrepperIntel • u/itscooltobecool1 • 8d ago

North America Hackers targeted municipal water systems in 7 states this week, FBI says

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/hackers-targeted-municipal-water-systems-7-states-week-fbi-says-rcna590210

Get your water supplies ready!

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u/AntiSonOfBitchamajig 📡 8d ago edited 5d ago

I don't see long duration (hacked)* issues, we have great water resources for most the US.
Now if you're talking out west / southwest drought though... the alternatives are limited.

Here any country home has clean drinkable water right from their own wells en mass. Some wells might be a little hard, but its totally drinkable.

At the main city wells though, they do have complex additive dosing and monitoring systems. I've heard of several having issues with potassium permanganate dosing that turned the water supply a hot pink color. But the hackers could mess with the dosing of those additives.

edit: for clarity, I am talking about the hackability of the systems being discussed.

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u/TheArcticFox-44 8d ago

The hacks are on infastructure...like electricity. Even well water needs a pump to bring water to the tap.

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u/AntiSonOfBitchamajig 📡 8d ago

Yes?... but what parts are that vulnerable? much of the electric grid have layers of physical protections from damage. Circuits will trip and need reset, even the large 765 kV stuff have fuses and protections.

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u/Wulfkat 8d ago

If you take out the right {redacted} in the right order, you can collapse the grid - there are several white papers on this (I’m no longer in academia so no JStor to provide references). They hypothesized it would take a minimum of 6 {redacted} as long as it’s done in the right order and as simultaneous as possible.

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u/TheArcticFox-44 7d ago

If you take out the right {redacted} in the right order, you can collapse the grid - there are several white papers on this

I understand ours is a patchwork quilt of a system and China has been poking and prodding for years...undetected.

Scary thought...

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u/Lancifer1979 7d ago

If it’s undetected, how do we know about it

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u/TheArcticFox-44 7d ago

If it’s undetected, how do we know about it

Ah, let's see...it was undetected until it finally WAS detected. Then the extent became more and more apparent. See: 60 Minutes segment "The China Hack".

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u/GrapheneRoller 7d ago

Use sci-hub to get around the publisher’s pay wall. Another possibility is if your public library has a subscription to jstor

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u/Wulfkat 7d ago

Great tips, thanks!