Man on vacation confused for a Russian spy, almost restarts cold war

Threats of Russian espionage can come from the unlikliest of sources , as Jim Mimlitz, owner of Navionics Research, a small integrator firm, knows only too well. Curran Gardner Public Water District, just outside of Springfield, Illinois, employed Mimlitz’s firm to establish its Supervisory Control and information Acquisition system (SCADA), and the spy games began when Mimlitz went on vacation in Russia. While there, he logged into the SCADA system to ascertain some data, then logged off and went back to enjoying Red Square and the best vodka mother Russia has to supply.

However, five months later a Curran Gardner water pump fails, and an IT contractor eyeballing the logs spots the Russian-based IP address. Fearing stolen credentials, he passes the information up the chain of command to the Environmental Protection Agency (because it governs the water district) without bothering to contact Mimlitz, whose name was within the logs next to the IP address. The EPA then passed along the paranoia to a joint state and federal terrorism intelligence center, which issued a report stating that SCADA were hacked. Oh boy. A media frenzy followed bringing each of the brouhaha to Mimlitz’s attention. After speaking with the FBI, the large oversight was identified, papers were shuffled, and everybody went about their day. So, next time you delete your whole company’s e-mail , or restart the wrong server , remember: a minimum of you didn’t almost start World War III. Tap the source link for the total story.

[Image courtesy Northackton ]

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This post is tagged: chain of command, data acquisition system, environmental protection agency, intelligence center, report stating that, springfield illinois, supervisory control and data acquisition