Wichita Falls prepared for cyber threats against water system

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - A recent hack on a Texas water facility has everyone on guard. We talked to city leaders to see if the city has a defensive plan for cyber attacks.

With the city of Wichita Falls being in stage one drought restrictions, falling victim to a cyber attack could lead to the misuse of our water.

Attacks on sensitive industrial equipment can disrupt regular operations for any facility, either those being an electrical supply or water.

Public Information Officer Chris Horgen, on how prepared the security is to prevent any type of attack.

“With water being a high commodity in Wichita Falls right now, the security of our systems is a very high priority. There are a lot of secure systems that are in place, a lot of security measures to make sure that we do not make it easy by any stretch of the imagination, for anyone to try to hack in or break into any of our facilities that are so crucial to our water supply. City of Wichita Fall Public Information Officer, Chris Horgen said.

Last month national security urged state officials and water authorities to increase their cyber defenses.

Horgen said that there are constantly two people at the facility keeping an eye out.

“They are watching not only for security, but they are also watching for safety. They want to make sure that nothing strange is happening in the water, everything is functioning properly but also the fact that nothing is coming up on an alert saying that we got an issue here, there is a problem here.” Horgen said.

The FBI and national security monitor cyber attacks not just on the federal level, but also local level.

City employees go through training when it comes to cyber-attacks to be extra prepared.

Wichita Falls says a lot is going into protecting the entire city and making sure that the infrastructure stays safe from possible cyber threats.

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