TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — It was a scare that brought international attention to the City of Oldsmar.
Two years ago, we were told a plant operator at Oldmar’s water treatament facility foiled a cyberattack that could have poisoned the town’s water supply. But now 8 On Your Side Investigator Mahsa Saeidi has learned it may never have happened.
It was Super Bowl weekend, February 2021. Tampa Bay was hosting, and the eyes of the world were on us. That’s when the news broke there had been an attempted cyberattack.
“We don’t know right now whether the breach originated from within the United States, or outside the country,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at the time.
Gualtieri said a hacker remotely accessed a water treatment plant and raised the levels of lye, the main ingredient in drain cleaner.
It was said that the cybercriminal tried to poison nearly 15,000 individuals, alarming both residents in Oldsmar and cyber security experts.
“It is frightening that they can go in and change things,” said Jo Boles at the time.
The incident made international headlines. It was troubling because it revealed vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure.
For two years, media outlets, including 8 On Your Side, tried to get an update on the case. But the sheriff, the city, and the FBI would only say the investigation was ongoing.
But was it?
Al Braithwaite was the City Manager in Oldsmar at the time. Last month, during a cybersecurity panel at American Society for Public Administration, he said that after the incident, the FBI concluded there was no hack.
“The FBI conclusion was…it didn’t happen,” said Braithwaite.
Braithwaite said it took the feds only four months to determine a worker accidentally altered the chemicals.
“The employee observed it and reported it because it wasn’t what was supposed to be happening,” Braithwaite added. “Local law enforcement, the forensic detectives, took it to mean that somebody was trying to access the system.”
“As the FBI concluded because there was no evidence of any access from the outside that it was likely the employee, the same employee that was kind of purported to be a hero for catching it, was actually banging on his keyboard.”
Now, the FBI is finally providing an update, more than two years later.
“Through the course of the investigation the FBI was not able to confirm that this incident was initiated by a targeted cyber intrusion of Oldsmar,” said the FBI’s Tampa Field Office spokeswoman Andrea Aprea.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says their case is active.
“The investigation is still open, and we have no comment.”
“What the Sheriff did probably did more to benefit getting people to take it more seriously and spend some money on it,” said Mr. Braithwaite.
8 On Your Side Investigator Mahsa Saeidi will continue to follow this story.