Iranians Hackers Targeted Control of New York Dam
The seven Iranian hackers that were indicted for conducting distributed denial of service attacks on banks also were charged with illegally accessing the supervisory control and data acquisition, or “SCADA,” system at a dam in New York State. This is reportedly the first time a breach in a U.S. computer system that controls critical infrastructure has been linked by the FBI to a hacker associated with a foreign government. The attack on the dam did not cause immediate harm because the sluice gate was disconnected for maintenance at the time of the hack. But, the information the hacker obtained could be used on dams and other infrastructure in the future, including allowing the hacker to “remotely operate and manipulate the sluice gate” at the dam. The Iranian hacker’s unauthorized access of the dam’s SCADA system was a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
