RYE BROOK – Following 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 while in Westchester on Wednesday 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 work closer with state, local and municipal
governments as well as public works and utility companies to better prevent
future hacks.
Astorino, meanwhile, said on 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.
