The federal investigators are checking into a report of hackers who may have managed to shut down remotely a utility’s water pump in the central part of Illinois on November 8th.  If it is true it would be the first foreign cyber attack that is known on an industrial system in the United States.

The hackers had gained access to a water utility network in a rural community.  This rural community was on the west side of Springfield, Illinois.  The credentials that were stolen were from a company that develops software which was used to maintain control over industrial systems.  The report did not explain why these hackers did this or who they think the hackers might be.  They think that the same bunch of hackers may be planning more strikes using the credentials that were stolen or may have attacked other industrial targets.

The area that was targeted serves approximately two thousand two hundred customers but there was no interruption in service.  They are confident that no customer records were compromised in any way.

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