this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026
461 points (99.6% liked)

Technology

86835 readers
3378 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
461
CISA Releases Guidance Urging Water Treatment Facilities to Disconnect Equipment From the Internet (www.privacyguides.org)
submitted 2 days ago by new_otters_raft@piefed.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
67 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

CISA released an urgent message warning water utilities to disconnect their logic controllers from the internet in the face of rising cyberattacks.

The hacks target internet-facing programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that control equipment and allow machinery to communicate. They monitor and control the water pressure, chemical dosing, and other factors to ensure the water is safe.

Many of the PLCs are apparently open to the internet and use default credentials, allowing a remote attacker to easily take them over.

I assume it is this CISA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersecurity_and_Infrastructure_Security_Agency

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] frank@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Automation engineer here who does a lot of SCADA

There are soooo many good ways to securely monitor stuff from home. But especially in critical infrastructure it's just usually air gapped which is unbeatable in cyber security.

Tours of any local facility are super cool! I find it all so interesting, seeing how the things we use work!

[โ€“] Buckshot@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

I worked on new SCADA for a water company across all theirs sites. Previously they were a mismatch of different systems and all airgapped.

They standardised everything and put them all on VPN. Suddenly you could access the secure water treatment works with 24/7 security guards and the control room was a bunker, from the unmanned rural sewage works with a portacabin for the server, the key hidden under a brick, and wifi for the PLCs.

The sewage works had always operated like that because it was deemed low risk. No one considered the VPN changed the threat model.