Investigations are underway after unknown culprits tried to poison the water supply of a city in Florida, officials said.

The water treatment system in the city of Oldsmar in Pinellas County was hacked remotely on Friday, Jan. 5, and the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, was increased to more than 100 times its normal levels, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a press conference on Monday.

Sodium hydroxide is used in small amounts to control acidity in water, but can be corrosive in larger amounts and is found in household cleaning supplies, including drain and oven cleaners.

“This is somebody who is trying, as it appears on the surface, to do something bad. It’s a bad act. It’s a bad actor,” he told reporters.

“This isn’t just, ‘Oh, we’re putting a little bit of chlorine or a little bit of fluoride, or a little bit of something,’ we’re basically talking about lye that you are taking from 100 parts per million to 11,100,” he added, noting that these were “dangerous” levels.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/hacker-tried-to-poison-water-supply-in-a-florida-city-sheriff_3690440.html

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A town in Florida has been target of a hack which briefly altered chemicals in its water supply to "potentially damaging levels" according to local media reports. Federal and local authorities are currently investigating the computer network intrusion which happened last Friday morning, the alarming details of which are emerging Monday.

Plant operators overseeing the small city of Oldsmar’s water supply began observing strange activity on their monitors. That's when technicians noticed that sodium hydroxide levels (or lye), which is used to treat the city's water in small amounts in order to control acidity while removing heavy metals, was being remotely pushed higher.

Technicians noticed the chemical levels being subject of unauthorized external manipulation in real time and immediately moved to restore the sodium hydroxide input to its safe, correct levels. The AP detailed based on local reporting: "A plant worker first noticed the unusual activity at around 8 a.m. Friday when someone briefly accessed the system."

"At about 1:30 p.m., someone accessed it again, took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water treatment and increased the amount of sodium hydroxide," the report continued.

The hacker or hackers have yet to be uncovered and apprehended. According to details announced by the county sheriff Bob Gualtieri and featured in Tampa Bay Times:

Someone remotely accessed a computer for the city’s water treatment system and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, by a factor of more than 100, Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday. The chemical is used in small amounts to control the acidity of water but it’s also a corrosive compound commonly found in household cleaning supplies such as liquid drain cleaners.

"This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase," the Pinellas County sheriff added.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/hacker-tried-poison-entire-florida-town-raising-chemical-levels-water-supply