Mysterious hacker attempted to poison water supply of Oldsmar city in Florida: Officials

A mysterious hacker recently infiltrated a computer for water treatment system of city of Oldsmar, Florida, in an unsuccessful attempt at what could have amounted to a mass poisoning. According to Guardian, local and federal authorities are investigating how hacker was able to remotely gain access to water treatment plant and briefly increase amount of sodium hydroxide by a factor of more than 100. It is worth mentioning that chemical is used in small amounts to control acidity of water but if used in large quantities, it can cause irritation, burns and or complications. 

Pinellas County sheriff, Bob Gualtieri, on February 8 informed that a sharp-eyed supervisor ticed measurements of chemical suddenly changing wildly on his computer screen and promptly stepped in to reverse action, leaving city’s water supply unaffected. hacker had infiltrated computer on Friday and suspect was able to breach Oldsmar’s computer system. Gualtieri said that hacker briefly increased amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million. 

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‘Public was never in danger’ 

county sheriff added that at time re was a “significant adverse effect” on water being treated. He also said that importantly, “public was never in danger”. Furr, he informed that a plant worker first ticed unusual activity at around 8am on Friday, when someone briefly accessed system. n about 1:30pm, someone accessed it again, took control of mouse, directed it to software that controls water treatment and increased amount of sodium hydroxide. 

Florida officials have said that or safeguards in place probably would have caught change before it reached water supply. remote-access system hacker was able to use has since been disabled, officials added. Moreover, Sheriff’s office said that FBI and Secret Service are investigating. y also added that body has been arrested, although investigators have some leads. Or area municipalities have also been alerted about water treatment attack. 

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