WSJ Reports Iran Hacked Controls of New York Dam in 2013

Iran successfully hacked the controls of a small dam 20 miles from New York City in 2013 according to the Wall Street Journal. The dam, located in Rye, New York, is used for flood control and not considered to be very important on the scale of defense-related targets. But it did underscore American vulnerability to external cyber-attacks and the willingness of Iran to exploit such opportunities. The Journal reports that in the United States there are more than 57,000 industrial control systems linked to the Internet. Events such as the Rye hacking are met by a Homeland Security emergency response team. The incident occurred after the US hit Iran with a computer work and Iranians were launching cyber-attacks on US bank websites.