Iranian hackers attached the security of a dam outside of New York in 2013.
The hack of Bowman Avenue Dam near Rye Brook, New York, was not a sophisticated intrusion, but a test by Iranian hackers to see what they could access. The hackers got into the system through a cellular modem. The breach occurred during the same time that Iranian hackers were targeting US financial institutions.
The attackers were unable to get into the full dam system but could take control of the flood gates. Hackers can easily get into pieces of old critical infrastructure running on retro-fitted software that is connected to the Internet. More than 57000 industrial control systems (ICS) — more than any other country — that are largely unprotected on the Internet.
According to researchers at Shodan, a search engine that catalogs each machine online, the systems range from office air-conditioning units to major pipelines and electrical-control systems. Most of the critical infrastructure in the U.S. is privately owned, making it difficult for governments to harden the systems against attack.
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