RYE BROOK – In the wake
of the revelation of an Iranian cyber-security breach at the Bowman Avenue
Dam in Rye two years ago, US Senator Charles Schumer wants a full homeland
security investigation of the incident and Westchester County Executive
Robert Astorino wants to know why the county was not informed of the security
risk.
Schumer said Wednesday while in Westchester that the cyber-attack “points
to potential vulnerabilities to cyber-attack of our critical infrastructure
including dams, sensitive industrial systems and power grids.”
The senator said the country’s critical infrastructure is “still
far too vulnerable to hackers and we must do more.”
Once a homeland security investigation is conducted, Schumer said the
federal government should world closer with state, local and municipal
governments as well as public works and utility companies to better prevent
suture hacks.
Astorino, meanwhile, said Wednesday that, “If this information was
important enough to report to the White House then why wasn’t it
reported to me and the county officials who would have been required to
deal with the consequences of any terror attack.”
The county executive said despite the county being a member of the FBI
Joint Terrorism Task Force, they were never alerted to the potential security
risk of the 2013 hack.
The Bowman Avenue dam, in the Village of Rye Brook, is owned by the City
of Rye and controls water on the Blind Brook flowing south through the
city. The dam, which is designed to mitigate flooding, has a computer-operated
sluice gate.
The reports suggest that while the hackers never took control of the dam,
they were able to penetrate the electronics system.
