Conference tackles critical infrastructure issues

09.02.2006
Australia's only officially recorded attack on critical infrastructure will be dissected and analyzed next week at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) annual conference.

The attack on Queensland's Maroochy Water Services in April 2000 saw multiple pump station shutdowns sending millions of litres of raw sewage spilling into local parks, rivers and the grounds of hotel resorts.

After an extensive investigation, an ex-employee of a supplier to Maroochy Water Services was found guilty of hacking into the SCADA control system 46 times. He was later charged with 30 offenses, fined and sentenced to two years jail.

The hack resulted in cleanup costs of around A$13,000 (US$9,610) and an extra A$176,000 for additional monitoring and security for Maroochy Shire Council.

The hacker, an ex-employee of Hunter Watertech was aiming for a contract position within Maroochy Water Services to correct system faults he was later found to be responsible for. After being refused the position the hacker then began sabotaging the sewage management system by remotely accessing the system and messaging various pumps to shut down.

In early stages of the investigation a radio ham was thought to be the culprit; however, once internal investigators discovered the messages could not be sent without specialized equipment, system analysts were employed to find out where the system was failing.