Childersburg – The Childersburg Water, Sewer, and Gas Board has reported that its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA) was targeted by a cyberattack late last month. The attack happened July 27th and targeted a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) within the SCADA system.
Board Director Travis Mizzell said that multiple other public utilities also were targeted. Mizzell told the Council, “The community’s drinking water supply was never threatened and customers experienced no service disruptions during or after the incident.”
Once the attempted intrusion was identified, department personnel took the SCADA network offline as a precaution as all operations – water, sewer, and gas services continued without interruption via manual operating systems.
Mizzell reported the cyber attack to the FBI and other appropriate agencies in accordance with established procedures, “We are cooperating with authorities as the investigation continues.”
In the meantime, utlitiy crews are installing additional cybersecurity protections. The upgrades are designed to strengthen defenses against future attacks and improve overall system security and should be completed in a week or so.
