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a recent Alert issued by the
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Environmental Protection Agency warns
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about cyber attacks targeting local
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Water Systems across the country the
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agency says over 70% of inspected water
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systems do not fully comply with
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security requirements in the Safe
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Drinking Water Act Right now our Maya
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Payton is in Anderson to tell us how the
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Water Systems there are protecting
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Maya yeah Rashad these cyber attackers
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are slipping their way through the um
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these these attacks and these these
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digital cracks you know and they're
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looking for something very particular
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they're looking to shut off your water
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supply they're looking to damage
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infrastructure they're also looking um
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to alter the the chemical levels within
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your water here in Anderson they are
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aware of the threat and they have
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measures in place to protect the water
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supply Anderson Regional joint water
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system is in charge of providing
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drinking water to 14 districts and over
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200,000 customers in Anderson and
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Pickins counties and parts of Abbyville
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County their facility controls are not
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connected to the internet which reduces
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the risk but if a cyber attacker finds a
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way in we have communication plans in
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place that address the who what when and
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where that we can send out to our
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members uh pretty exp expeditiously and
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then that allows them to uh use that
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information to contact their their
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customers directly the city of Anderson
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is their largest customer and manag es
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two water treatment facilities it's a
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viable threat and it's and it's already
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it's been taking place as a matter of
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fact I was contacted uh by Homeland
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Security about a month ago and they were
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uh looking uh for the municipality that
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owned a specific skaus system that was
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wide open on the internet to stay ahead
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of these digital Intruders the city
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maintains compliance by working with
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supporting agencies and conducting risk
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assessments we air gap all of our
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Wastewater systems which means you
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cannot remote into those uh systems you
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have to physically go visit them the uh
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the system in order to uh make changes
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our water system um we have multiple
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measures of cyber security uh you know
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applied to those systems and they only
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provide data uh no equipment can be
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changed or modified using those
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systems well I'm told by the city that
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you know they have training security
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training in place for any employee that
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touches a computer in fact they have to
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pass a test in order to gain access well
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coming up we're going to take a look at
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what these attacks attackers are after
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in Anderson I'm Maya Payton wff news4
