Greece, N.Y. (WHAM) — Production Engineer Ken Naugle with the Monroe County Water Authority said they supply some 800,000 customers with drinking water across six counties, pumping out about 20 billion gallons of water annually.
“We operate three water treatment plants: two that utilize Lake Ontario as a source of supply, and one that utilizes a groundwater source in Genesee County,” he said at the Shoremont Treatment Plant Wednesday.
Naugle said raw water comes in and chemicals are added to begin the filtration process. The water then goes through a coagulation process before disinfectant is added.
“Disinfection is necessary to treat pathogens that could cause water disease outbreaks,” he said.
Behind that process are people, with a heavy reliance on modern computers.
“We utilize technology to automate our systems as much as possible,” he said, adding the technology allows operators to “efficiently control and send commands to remote facilities, so that we can have continuity of service 24 hours a day for our customers.”
He said the authority’s systems are physically separated as much as possible from access points.
“That’s where we employ various other technologies as countermeasures to protect these systems,” he said.
Naugle said the chance of a cybersecurity hack — like those experienced by water systems in about a dozen states recently — is quite small in the region.
“The risk is low, but it’s never zero,” he said, adding those states had incidents involving programmable logic controllers, or PLCs. “Malicious actors were able to achieve access to those types of systems and begin to intrude into their networks.”
Naugle said an attack could look like a bad actor hacking into the system and giving the water too much chemical treatment — or not enough — thus making the supply unusable. Keeping up with cybersecurity at the plants is something Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle (D-25th) is helping to boost.
“The Russians, potentially the Chinese, Iranians, North Koreans … we’re on guard, and so making sure we’re making these investments is a priority for me,” said Morelle, adding those nations are constantly upgrading their hacking capabilities, “which means you have to continue to invest in your defensive capabilities.”
Alongside Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Morelle helped secure $1.09 million in federal funding directly for the water authority.
“We want to make sure they don’t get exploited. So we’re going to continue to invest,” said Morelle. “We’re going to continue to meet that challenge, and that doesn’t mean we stop.”
Morelle said the money has already been appropriated and is being released. Naugle said the authority is already mission-ready, but the money will further help tighten cybersecurity and hopefully nip vulnerabilities in the bud.
“Rest assured we’re in good hands,” said Naugle. “We continuously update our systems, whether it’s firmware updates or other means, to provide a level of protection. Working with manufacturers, working with systems to assure that the modules and nodes that make up our communication infrastructure is protected as best as possible.”
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