OLDSMAR, Fla. — Detectives with The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office are investigating a computer software hack at the City of Oldsmar’s water treatment plant.
On Friday, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office was notified by the City of Oldsmar that their computer system had been remotely accessed at 8:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. by an unknown suspect.
According to detectives, the City of Oldsmar’s computer system at the water treatment plant allows for remote access by authorized users to troubleshoot any system problems from other locations.
The initial intrusion at 8:00 a.m. was brief and not cause for concern due to supervisors regularly accessing the system remotely to monitor the system. At 1:30 p.m., a plant operator witnessed a second remote access user opening various functions in the system that control the amount of sodium hydroxide in the water. The operator noted the remote access user raised the levels of sodium hydroxide in the water. The operator immediately reduced the levels to their appropriate amount. The initial investigation revealed that the hacker remotely accessed the treatment plant’s computer for approximately 3 to 5 minutes.
At a press conference held on February 8, 2021, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri stated, “At no time was there a significant effect on the water being treated, and more importantly the public was never in danger.”
“This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase. Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners,” Gualtieri added.
“If you put that amount of that substance in the drinking water it’s not a good thing,” Gualtieri said. “This is somebody who is trying, as it appears on the surface, to do something bad.”
“This should be treated as a matter of national security,” U.S. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said in tweet.
I will be asking the @FBI to provide all assistance necessary in investigating an attempt to poison the water supply of a #Florida city.
This should be treated as a matter of national security.
https://t.co/XhGNLplNpr via @vice
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 8, 2021
The investigation continues.
