Cyberterrorism and the Security of the National Drinking Water Infrastructure

Presented at DEF CON 18 (2010), July 31, 2010, 5 p.m. (50 minutes).

The national drinking water infrastructure is vitally important to protection of public health and safety and also supports business, industry, and the national economy. While steps have been taken since 9/11 to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in the drinking water infrastructure, serious vulnerabilities remain. In this talk, the presenter will discuss and review the challenges of physical and cyber security for the national public drinking water infrastructure and provide his observations, based on 13 years running a local water department and 5 years in IT, on the existing security gaps and what should be done about them. Part of this talk will be based on a talk he gave at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Water Security Congress in April, 2009 in Washington, DC about a strategic weakness of the national infrastructure. He will also review the state of cyber insecurity of the drinking water infrastructure, the threats currently known to their SCADA systems, and the potential threats and countermeasures that should be considered.


Presenters:

  • John McNabb - President, South Shore PC Services
    John McNabb has been an elected Water Commissioner for 13 years in a small town in Massachusetts, and has been concerned about physical and cyber security of water systems even before 9/11. He also worked for 10 years in the New England office of Clean Water Action and 6 years at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. He has been interested in computers since a very early age, and after varying lengths of time in non-IT careers including politics, lobbying, government relations, journalism, public relations, and waterworks management, and now works as an IT pro, sometimes in IT security. John gave a talk at The Next HOPE two weeks ago on Electronic Take Back.

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