[PLUG-TALK] Municipal water/waste water IT security

[John Jason Jordan]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2021 05:46:48 -0700 (PDT)
Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> dijo:

>Yesterday Brian Krebs wrote about IT and OT security at water supply
>and wastewater treatment facilities, "How Cyber Safe is Your Drinking
>Water Supply?". <https://krebsonsecurity.com/>
>
>I asked a competent Troutdale city council member to read the article
>and let me know the cyber security status of the city's facilities. It
>would be interesting to compare the status of cyber security in our
>various municipalities.

A few years ago there was a flap in the press because some federal rule
suddenly required all water supply systems and reservoirs to be
enclosed. As I recall, this happened after 9/11, due to the heightened
need for security. Think of how easy it would be to dump something toxic
into the reservoir on Mt Tabor. As I recall, the City of Portland made
a huge fuss because 1) it would cost millions and, 2) for many of our
reservoirs it would likely be impossible anyway. It was obvious to me
that the idiots who made the rule lived in flat country where
'reservoir' means a tank up on poles, and it never occurred to them
that in mountain country we do things differently. Eventually the City
of Portland prevailed on this issue, but we are still sitting ducks.
Our salvation is that water from exposed reservoirs goes through a lot
of pipe before it gets into our houses, so the evil acts of miscreants
would be discovered before very many people suffer.