Hacker attempts to taint city’s water

OLDSMAR, Fla. — A hacker remotely gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemical, authorities said.

An unknown suspect breached a computer system for the city of Oldsmar’s water treatment plant on Friday and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Monday.

Sodium hydroxide, also called lye, is used to treat water acidity but the compound is also found in cleaning supplies such as soaps and drain cleaners. It can cause irritation, burns and other complications in larger quantities.

A supervisor saw the chemical being tampered with and was able to intervene and reverse it. Oldsmar is about 15 miles northwest of Tampa and the city’s 15,000 residents were not at risk, officials said.

Oldsmar officials have since disabled the remote-access system.

A plant worker first noticed the unusual activity at around 8 a.m. Friday when someone briefly accessed the system. At about 1:30 p.m., someone accessed it again, took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water treatment and increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

Investigators said it wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the attack, which is being investigated by the FBI, the Secret Service and the sheriff’s office.