Multiple safeguards to protect the water system

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – JEA wants to guarantee its customers that the treated water in the concessionaire’s facilities is safe to drink due to the layers of protocols in force.

At the JEA center’s water treatment plant, Kevin Holbrooks is the director of environmental compliance and it is his job to ensure that the city’s water is safe. He said the attempt to poison drinking water at a treatment facility in the town of Oldsmar in Pinellas County is worrying.

“We know that people are always trying to do this all the time. It is a known fact. The fact that a hacker goes through their security is worrying, ”said Holbrooks.

Authorities said a hacker gained access to Oldsmar’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to contaminate the water supply with a caustic chemical. Pinellas County sheriff Bob Gualtieri said on Monday that someone was able to breach a computer system at the Oldsmar water treatment plant on Friday. Gualtieri said the hacker briefly increased the amount of lye by a factor of more than 100. The sheriff said a supervisor saw the chemical being tampered with and was able to intervene and reverse it.

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Holbrooks said that the JEA has several safeguards in place.

“Our systems are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The feed rate is controlled remotely and can be controlled at the plant site. We operate on site, checking everything on a daily basis. We have people in the field monitoring field conditions, as well as remote sensors throughout our distribution system, ”said Holbrooks.

JEA also has laboratory technicians and scientists who constantly test and analyze water samples to ensure that it is safe to drink. In fact, on average, water is tested more than 45,000 times a year.

When it comes to the computer system used to pump water and add chemicals to the water to make it drinkable, JEA could not provide specific details without compromising safety, however, the utility provided a statement that says:

“To address the risks that can affect the security and reliability of services, the JEA security program has a layered defense strategy. The JEA security program includes, but is not limited to, vulnerability management, system monitoring and active response to such threats. These safeguards ensure that JEA actively maintains a highly secure control system.

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“JEA also has safeguards to protect its water system. Water treatment facilities are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and water testing is mandatory and regulated by the state. On average, each year, JEA collects and tests more than 45,000 water samples. “

US Senator Marco Florida tweeted on Monday that what happened in Oldsmar should be treated as a matter of national security.

While the JEA continues to monitor water quality, JEA officials said they will continue to monitor the investigation in Oldsmar to see if there is anything they can learn from the security breach.

At around 4:30 pm on Tuesday, more than 7 million computers worldwide were attacked by hackers.

Cybersecurity expert Chris Hamer said these are not necessarily home computers that hackers are attacking.

“They could be power plants, public municipal water services, public transport systems, hospitals, police,” said Hamer. “Their intention is to gain control of the system so that they can rescue it, penetrate the accounting system to obtain a refund or eliminate their account, or to increase everyone’s account by mistake, or they are traveling to see what they can Watch.”

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In the case of the Oldsmar water system hack, investigators said it was not immediately clear where the attack came from. Hamer said there was a chance that the hacker would be able to enter the system through malicious e-mail or an unprotected remote desktop program.

“They are constantly on the internet and are constantly ringing the bell that answers, and in this case, most programs respond by identifying what the real process is, so once it is cataloged, these people will keep trying different passwords until they come in, ”said Hamer.

So if a system has low or no security, Hamer said, it doesn’t take much effort to infiltrate the system.