Current Events > Hacked Florida water plant reused passwords and had aging Windows installations

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Florida water treatment plant unsuccessfully targeted by hackers last week had used multiple computers running an aging version of Microsoft Windows to monitor the facility remotely, and all of the computers shared a single password to access an apparently disused version of the plant's remote management software.

The revelations highlight evidence of poor cybersecurity hygiene at the plant, whose unexpected compromise has raised awareness of the nation's vulnerability to industrial cyberattacks.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/us/florida-water-plant-hack/index.html

ayyyyyyyyyeidiots

---

The person in charge of that place should be given a long time behind bars.

That kind of negligence in that position is criminal.

---

"unsuccessfully targetted"

so what youre saying is it worked?

pikachupwnage posted...

The person in charge of that place should be given a long time behind bars.

That kind of negligence in that position is criminal.

Except that the aging system is probably half the reason the hack was unsuccessful

wtf is this black screen with the white letters!??!?

---

Lots of facilities use aging Windows, it can't be helped for companies, but the shared password is inexcusable, all passwords should be different on each device.
---

using windows for mission-critical infrastructure should be a felony imo

---

i worked at a hospital that got hit with ransomware a few years back, same damn issue. i'd guess that 99% of these attacks happen because you've got dunderfucks using the same damn passwords for everything or just refusing to move on from windows xp...

---

This is one of those issues that should be a big American crisis but instead it's probably like the 47th item on the list due to everything else going on.

It's not just the security aspect. When a bunch of people suddenly needed unemployment in March and April, lots of states who are still running on systems built in the 90's were crashing and people couldn't get their money for months.

Shit is crumbling and there's no urgent push to fix it.

---

TheMikh posted...

using windows for mission-critical infrastructure should be a felony imo

But, this mission critical thingy only works in IE6!!

ShyOx posted...

Except that the aging system is probably half the reason the hack was unsuccessful

wtf is this black screen with the white letters!??!?

lol reminds me of watching anti scammers when they use win 95 and the scammers clearly dont know wtf is going on lol.

---

they were unsuccessful

so i dont get the problem

The bigger question is, why the fuck is critical infrastructure connected to the internet, at all?

Questionmarktarius posted...

The bigger question is, why the fuck is critical infrastructure connected to the internet, at all?

so everything can be controlled from a centralized location or offsite in an emergency without the cost of running dedicated lines and the risk of those lines being cut by bad actors.

---

there are probably a ton of places like this

---

Obligatory ProZD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPUgjy-Pn-4