Russian cybercriminals managed to hack into a Quebec municipality’s water treatment plant systems and had the ability to wreak havoc on the crucial infrastructure before getting caught, according to Canada’s cyber spy agency.
In its latest annual report released Monday, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) said that it detected over 3,200 cyber incidents affecting either federal government organizations or one of ten critical infrastructure sectors, such as energy, critical minerals and water.
In one particular case discussed in the report, the signals intelligence agency said it was advised last October that Russian hacktivist group NoName had broken into the Quebec water plant’s network and gained access to many crucial systems.
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According to CSE, NoName claimed it had gained the “ability to covertly control pumps, chlorine dosing, pressure settings and monitoring/alerts systems.” The report does not identify the impacted Quebec municipality.
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The annual report … points to two main state cyber adversaries: Russia and China. The report emphasizes that both countries pose a growing threat in the Canadian Arctic, where challenges posed by adversaries go “beyond traditional military and cyber threats to include economic and influence-related activities that seek to shape access, infrastructure, and decision-making in the region.”
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Because a town council wanted to get re-elected and so “streamlined” the budget for the water department to save voter tax dollars.
My town has a population of 300. There is no way they could afford full-time employees managing the water treatment system.
They have a water treatment system? With SCADA?
When I lived in a town of 300, water treatment was a building in behind the credit union where someone had to manually go, check the levels visually, top up the fluids and check a checklist. Once a year some university student came around and did a battery of tests to certify the water and the system.
None of it required an Internet connection or even a computer.
This is true? The article doesn’t even mention what municipality this was, so it’d be good to actually see where this happened as well. I’m trying to find sources on this, do you have one?