Following Aliquippa, the water supply of the Irish county was affected. Are these incidents related?
Unknown hackers attacked the water supply system in the Irish County of Mayo, leaving 180 homes without water. The incident occurred on Thursday in the area of Erris in the west of Ireland. The Binghamstown/Drum private pumping station , which was established back in 1974, was hit.
According to Noel Walsh, one of the company's executives, they usually receive automatic alerts about technical problems, but this time there were no warnings. When the security guard arrived at the scene, he found a warning message on the control system screen: "You have been hacked." The slogan "Down with Israel" was displayed next to it, indicating the political motives of the attack, and the name of the group.
The connection to Israel is explained by the fact that the equipment for this water supply system was manufactured by the Israeli company Eurotronics. This manufacturer's systems are used in many parts of Ireland.
"The Irish Water Board probably has a lot more resources to build powerful firewalls that can withstand such attacks. But hackers were able to bypass our protection, and it was not possible to restore it immediately. It took an entire Friday to manually restore the water supply, " says Walsh.
At a meeting with police officials on December 1, Sinn Féin MP Rose Conway-Walsh addressed a question to Senior police Chief Raymond McMahon. She asked how well government agencies are prepared to deal with cyber attacks and what precautions are being taken to protect other water supply systems, as well as various organizations and agencies.
McMahon stressed that the police work closely with national units specializing in cybersecurity, and regularly conduct joint operations. He also added that so far he is not aware of other similar incidents in the region.
A similar incident occurred in November. Hackers broke into the Municipal Water Supply Management systems of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and gained control of one of the pumping stations. The attack was also politically motivated, only the target was the c software technique from the Israeli company Unitronics. Then the Iranian group Cyber Av3ngers claimed responsibility
Although the name of the group that attacked Binghamstown / Drum has not yet been disclosed, there is every reason to believe that the incidents are closely related. But it's still too early to say anything.
Unknown hackers attacked the water supply system in the Irish County of Mayo, leaving 180 homes without water. The incident occurred on Thursday in the area of Erris in the west of Ireland. The Binghamstown/Drum private pumping station , which was established back in 1974, was hit.
According to Noel Walsh, one of the company's executives, they usually receive automatic alerts about technical problems, but this time there were no warnings. When the security guard arrived at the scene, he found a warning message on the control system screen: "You have been hacked." The slogan "Down with Israel" was displayed next to it, indicating the political motives of the attack, and the name of the group.
The connection to Israel is explained by the fact that the equipment for this water supply system was manufactured by the Israeli company Eurotronics. This manufacturer's systems are used in many parts of Ireland.
"The Irish Water Board probably has a lot more resources to build powerful firewalls that can withstand such attacks. But hackers were able to bypass our protection, and it was not possible to restore it immediately. It took an entire Friday to manually restore the water supply, " says Walsh.
At a meeting with police officials on December 1, Sinn Féin MP Rose Conway-Walsh addressed a question to Senior police Chief Raymond McMahon. She asked how well government agencies are prepared to deal with cyber attacks and what precautions are being taken to protect other water supply systems, as well as various organizations and agencies.
McMahon stressed that the police work closely with national units specializing in cybersecurity, and regularly conduct joint operations. He also added that so far he is not aware of other similar incidents in the region.
A similar incident occurred in November. Hackers broke into the Municipal Water Supply Management systems of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and gained control of one of the pumping stations. The attack was also politically motivated, only the target was the c software technique from the Israeli company Unitronics. Then the Iranian group Cyber Av3ngers claimed responsibility
Although the name of the group that attacked Binghamstown / Drum has not yet been disclosed, there is every reason to believe that the incidents are closely related. But it's still too early to say anything.
