A hacker tried to poison a water treatment plant that served communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and apparently, it wasn’t very difficult.
According to Yahoo! News, a hacker used the username and password of a former employee’s TeamViewer account, allowing users to control their computers. Once they were logged in, they deleted programs the water plant used to treat drinking water, according to a private report put together by the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center back in February.
It wasn’t until the next day that the hacker was discovered. The facility responded by changing the passwords and reinstalling programs. The hacker and their intentions have yet to be identified. The facility confirmed the plant was not breached.
“No failures were reported as a result of this incident, and no individuals in the city reported illness from water-related failures,” the report read.
This is one of the latest attempts to hack into the nation’s water infrastructures. The Biden Administration is looking into the country’s cybersecurity issue, as Russian and Chinese spies have reputedly snuck into several federal government networks. Yahoo! News reports that some spies have hacked into U.S. networks and sat for months undetected.
