(KMOV) -- The Department of Homeland Security says it is looking into what caused a water pump failure at a small public water district near Springfield, Illinois. This comes with a report that an outside hacker, remotely turned the system on and off - breaking a water pump on November 8th.
Joe Weiss, a cyber security expert says he obtained a report from the Illinois Statewide Terrorism Intelligence Center. Weiss, of Applied Control Solutions, said the report stated that an hacker was able to access the water system and that the IP was initially traced to Russia. Weiss told News 4 he received the information while working as a consultant with people in the industry. Weiss said the report stated that the Curran-Gardner Township Public Water District noticed that there were glitches in the system for a period of a couple of months before the water pump failed.
The report Weiss cites was sent out for official use only. Weiss said he did not publish the report, but blogged about the reported breach - without identifying the water company.
Someone who answered the phone at Curran-Gardner said the utility was not commenting on the situation. An email to the general manager was not returned.
The Department of Homeland Security offered a statement this statement:
"DHS and the FBI are gathering facts surrounding the report of a water
pump failure in Springfield, Illinois. At this time there is no credible
corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure
entities or a threat to public safety."
The DHS would not elaborate.
Other cyber security experts say this incident should serve as a wake-up call to utilities and financial institutions about the vulnerability of what are known as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems - which control infrastructure.
"We all know how vulnerable these systems are, the hackers know how vulnerable these systems are, the public does not," said Jarrett Kolthoff of SpearTip, LLC. His company specialized in web security, though Kolthoff says he has no direct knowledge of the Curran-Gardner water pump failure.
Kolthoff added that this highlights the need for utilities to make sure they are using best practices to protect SCADA systems.
