NEW YORK – Seven alleged hackers with ties to the Iranian government
have been indicted for cybercrimes. One of those dealt with the Bowman
Avenue Dam in Rye.
In the Westchester case Hamid Firoozi, 34, is accused of repeatedly obtaining
unauthorized access to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems
in August and September 2013. It cost $30,000 to correct the breached
technology.
At the time of the alleged intrusion, the dam was undergoing maintenance
and had been disconnected from the system. If it was online, that access
would have given Firoozi the ability to control water levels and flow
rates – an outcome that federal authorities said could have posed
a clear danger to the public health and safety of Americans.
Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino said while the Bowman Avenue
Dam “may seem inconsequential, the attempt to hack it was not.”
He is concerned that any knowledge gained from that hack could be applied
by terrorists to other, much larger targets including larger water supplies
and airport.
All seven defendants are charged with attacks against 46 victims primarily
in the financial sector, between late 2011 and mid-2013. The attacks disabled
victim bank websites, prevented customers from accessing their accounts
online and collectively cost the victims tens of millions of dollars in
remediation costs as they worked to neutralize and mitigate the attacks
on their servers.
All of those indicted face up to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy
to commit and aid and abet computer hacking. Firoozi faces an additional
five years in prison for hacking into the Bowman Dam system.
