A 22-year-old man from the U.S. state of Kansas has been
indicted on charges that he unauthorizedly accessed a public water
facility’s computer system, jeopardizing the residents’ safety and
health in the local community.
Wyatt A. Travnichek, 22, of Ellsworth County, Kansas, has been
charged with one count of tampering with a public water system and
one count of reckless damage to a protected computer during
unauthorized access, according to the Department of Justice
(DoJ).
“By illegally tampering with a public drinking water system, the
defendant threatened the safety and health of an entire community,”
said[1]
Lance Ehrig, Special Agent in Charge of the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division in
Kansas.
“EPA and its law enforcement partners are committed to upholding
the laws designed to protect our drinking water systems from harm
or threat of harm. Today’s indictment sends a clear message that
individuals who intentionally violate these laws will be vigorously
prosecuted.”
On March 27, 2019, Travnichek is said to have broken into a
protected computer system belonging to the county’s Post-Rock Rural
Water District, using it to shut down the cleaning and disinfecting
processes at the facility.
The indictment doesn’t specify if the attack was successful and
how it was detected. If found guilty, Travnichek faces up to 25
years in federal prison and a total fine of $500,000.
The development comes months after unidentified actors staged an
intrusion at a water treatment
facility[2] in the state of Florida
and changed a setting that drastically altered the levels of sodium
hydroxide (NaOH) in the water.
References
- ^
said
(www.justice.gov) - ^
intrusion at a water treatment
facility (thehackernews.com)