The consumer electronics and device web magazine Engadget is reporting that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating a case in which a public water system in Springfield, Ill., may have been targeted in a cyber-attack, possibly from foreign sources.
The investigators have been told that hackers accessed a water plant's SCADA system and used it to turn a pump off and on repeatedly so that it ultimately burned out and failed. There apparently was no threat to public safety and there has been no confirmation of criminal activity.
Commenters to the Engadget article have suggested that lax procedures may have helped make the system vulnerable; they cited the possibility of too-simple passwords and inadequate network security. Some also observed that the equipment itself should have had protection against such abuse through a safety shutdown or other safeguards.