DHS Issued False ‘Water Pump Hack’ Report; Called It a 'Success'

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dhs-false-water-pump-hack/

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
10.02.12

When an Illinois fusion center distributed a report last year stating 
that hackers from Russia had broken into a water district’s SCADA system 
and sabotaged a water pump, the Department of Homeland Security stepped 
in publicly to denounce the report as false, blaming the regional fusion 
center for spreading unsubstantiated claims and sowing panic in the 
industrial control system community.

But while DHS was busy pointing a finger at the fusion center, its own 
Office of Intelligence and Analysis had been irresponsibly spreading the 
same false information privately in a report to Congress and the 
intelligence community, according to a Senate subcommittee investigation 
released late Tuesday. The DHS report was issued five days after the 
fusion center report was issued.

Even after the FBI and other investigators concluded a few days later 
that there was no merit to the hacking claims and that the reports were 
false, the DHS intelligence unit did not issue a correction to its 
report or notify Congress or the intelligence community that the 
information it spread was incorrect.

Officials behind the false claims told Senate investigators that such 
reports weren’t meant to be “finished intelligence” and that despite 
their report’s inaccuracies and sloppy wording they considered it to be 
a “success.”

“[It did] exactly what it’s supposed to do – generate interest,” DHS 
officials told Senate investigators.

[...]

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