Page 7 - Cybersecurity Career Guide for UT Austin

CYBERSECURITY CAREER GUIDE 7
Several states issued alerts to water
systems in early 2021 after an incident
in Oldsmar, FL, in which a hacker at-
tempted to raise the level of sodium
hydroxide — used to remove metals and
control acidity in drinking water — to
poisonous levels. The compound, also
known as lye, is the main ingredient
in liquid drain cleaner and can cause
severe damage to the respiratory and
digestive system. The hack came to
light in real time as the system’s plant
operator noticed the cursor on his
computer moving around on its own. He
swiftly undid the changes. The breach
came on the heels of an intrusion into
a San Francisco Bay Area plant by a
hacker using a former employee’s login
to delete programs used to treat water.
Keeping Our
Drinking Water Safe
14.4
billion
Any device
connected to the
internet is vulnerable
to cyberattacks.
So, how many devices
are connected to
the internet?
This number is set to
explode in the coming
years as internet
consumption rises.
By 2030, there could be
25 billion
connected devices.
DATA SOURCE: STATISTA
Last year, some Instagram users received
a message claiming that a post of theirs
was guilty of copyright infringement.
They were further instructed to go to a
link in the message to resolve the issue,
where they were then asked to enter
their Instagram login information. Of
course, the message was really from a
cybercrime gang. And users who followed
the instructions ended up making their
accounts fully accessible to the hackers
who promptly changed people’s pass-
words and usernames. Then, the hackers
asked for ransom payments in exchange
Shielding Our Social Sitesfor access to the account, in amounts as
high as $40,000. Six months later, hack-
ers struck again, this time with a phish-
ing attack. Victims received an email
notification that their account was eli-
gible for the coveted “blue badge,” pend-
ing confirmation of all their information
at a “badge form” link. The scam worked
to create urgency in targets’ minds, warn-
ing users the verification process would
expire within 48 hours. Many willingly
gave up their private information. Last
year, Instagram rolled out a new security
feature meant to help users secure com-
promised accounts and kick out hackers
— yet the phishing attacks continue.