Security News > 2021 > April > Small Kansas Water Utility System Hacking Highlights Risks
A former Kansas utility worker has been charged with remotely tampering with a public water system's cleaning procedures, highlighting the difficulty smaller utilities face in protecting against hackers.
Wyatt Travnichek, 22, was charged last month with remotely accessing the Post Rock Rural Water District's systems in March 2019, about two months after he quit his job with the utility.
When he worked for the utility, he would monitor the water plant remotely by logging into its computer system, the Kansas City Star reports.
No centralized database of hacker attacks on utilities exists, but a 2016 report from the federal Department of Energy said the Department of Homeland Security responded to 25 water cybersecurity incidents in 2015.
The Florida city of Oldsmar, population 15,000, reported in February that a hacker attempted to poison its water supply by remotely accessing its system and changing chemical levels.
"As far as cities having an IT person, I just don't know of any our size," said Bill Shroyer, assistant city administrator in Sabetha, in northern Kansas, and president of the Kansas Rural Water Association.