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Last week, a hacker by the name of ‘prOf’ used the Internet to gain access to the city of South Houston’s sewage treatment plant. The hacker says he, or she, was inspired by the claim from the Department of Homeland Security that there was no widespread risk to public safety after Russian hackers damaged a pump at the water treatment plant in Springfield, Illinois. The hacker of the South Houston sewage plant posted plant diagrams, but did not cause any damage, according to the city.
“In this case, this person decided they wanted to prove the point that this type of infrastructure is vulnerable. And this person did so.”
That’s Chris Bronk. He’s a fellow in technology at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He says the city of South Houston was absolutely right to disconnect computer systems controlling water and sewage from the Internet. Bronk says what needs to happen now is a statewide audit of all utilities.
“It would be very nice to know exactly what municipalities across the state of Texas, in water alone, have systems that face the Internet — and what we can do to mitigate that vulnerability.”
Bronk says it would be worthwhile for authorities to track down the hacker who gained access to South Houston’s sewage treatment system. Not to prosecute the person, but to find out exactly how he or she got in as a way to keep other would-be hackers out.
