Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/944532
www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | MARCH 2018 | 17 A t a time when the head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has said a top- level cyber-attack on the UK is a question of "when, not if ", the water industry has cause to reflect. A€er the category two WannaCry ransomware attack hit the NHS in 2017, NCSC head Ciaran Martin's warning in January that "we will be fortunate to come to the end of the decade without having to trigger a category one attack" suggests the UK water sector should be on guard. Alarmingly, it was reported in 2016 that hackers had infiltrated a water treatment plant in an unidentified country and changed levels of chemicals being used to treat tap water four times. The U.S. Digital danger Justice Department then confirmed in an indictment that hackers had repeatedly gained unauthorised access to the computer that controlled the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for the Bowman Dam in New York in 2013. Even so, Anglian Water's Group Chief Information Security Officer, Steve Trippier, stresses that – while the potential for an attack is real – it is important to keep a sense of perspective. "One of the key things that we would take into account is the specific guidance we get from the National Cyber Security Centre, who tell us that the threat profile to the water industry is considered to be low/very low," he says. "More complex The Talk: interview Cyber attacks are becoming an increasing threat but, while the UK water industry could be vulnerable, Anglian Water security chief Steve Trippier says there is no cause to panic By Robin Hackett tools, which previously were only in the hands of nation states, are becoming available to criminals – but what I think's really important to look at is the motivation of why somebody would attack the water industry. "The NCSC is very clear that the people who have the motivation don't have the capability and the people who have the capability don't have the motivation." Nonetheless, Trippier – who became Anglian's first cyber-security chief in 2012 – says there are good reasons for the growing publicity around cyber-attacks. "Partly that's because people are aware of them and reporting them more; partly that's because they're becoming a lot more common," he says.