CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State health officials are working to reduce the risk of cyberattacks on public water and wastewater systems in West Virginia.
Officials with the West Virginia Department of Health (WVDH) said there have been a number of cyberattacks targeting water systems across the country and that they want to get ahead of the problem.
These attacks can disrupt treatment and distribution, compromise email communication, steal customer data, or install malware or ransomware that could disable process controls, according to a press release from WVDH.
Jason Frame, director of the Office of Environmental Health Services within WVDH’s Bureau for Public Health, told MetroNews Tuesday often times the attacker is looking for financial gain.
“There could be a monetary motivation involved. There could also be the goal to steal information from these systems or just general malicious intent to destruct their daily operations,” he said.
Frame warned these attacks could have a direct impact on water systems in West Virginia.
“It could be a variety of actions that could keep systems from producing clean drinking water — things like interrupting the remote monitoring water tanks or even devices that distribute chemicals in the daily treatment of water,” he said.
That’s why the state is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to offer free cyber security assessments to water systems across West Virginia.
“This is something that operators can sign up for. A contractor will come out and evaluate their systems and ultimately recommend upgrades and changes that may help cyber attacks in the future,” Frame said.
Water systems who are interested can click HERE to register.