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(Reuters) - Hackers broke into a water treatment facility that serves the town of Oldsmar in Florida on Friday and attempted to poison the water supply, the Pinellas County Sheriff said on Monday.
The hackers remotely gained access to a software program, named TeamViewer, on the computer of an employee at the facility to gain control of other systems, sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in an interview with Reuters.
"The guy was sitting there monitoring the computer as he's supposed to and all of a sudden he sees a window pop up that the computer has been accessed," Gualtieri said. "The next thing you know someone is dragging the mouse and clicking around and opening programs and manipulating the system."
The hackers then increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, being distributed into the water supply. The chemical is typically used in small amounts to control the acidity of water, but at higher levels is dangerous to consume.
The plant employee whose computer was hacked noticed the change and alerted his employer, who called the sheriff on Friday. The the water treatment facility was able to quickly revert the command, leading to minimal impact.
"The amount of sodium hydroxide that got in was minimal and was reversed quickly," Gualtieri said. The affected water treatment facility is a public utility owned by the local town, he explained, which has its own internal IT team. Oldsmar is near the city of Tampa.
The FBI and Secret Service have been called in to assist in an investigation. Gualtieri said he does not know who is responsible for the cyberattack.
"The important thing is to put everyone on notice," he said.
(Reporting by Christopher Bing; editing by Grant McCool)
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