"Last month, hackers tied computers into knots at a small Colorado water utility.
It wasn't the first time the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District and its wastewater counterpart had been hit by 'ransomware,' a type of malware that encrypts victims' computer files and demands online payment to unlock them.
While operations weren't harmed, the infection prompted the water district to switch out its information technology service provider and call in the FBI. The case, first reported by the Coloradoan, remains under active investigation. FCLWD and the South Fort Collins Sanitation District treat and distribute water to 45,000 customers in northern Colorado.
Colorado water officials aren't alone in their cybersecurity woes. The nation's nearly 70,000 water and wastewater utilities are struggling to keep their heads above a rising tide of online threats, based on interviews with security experts and water company operators."
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