California water treatment plant hacker indicted

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that charges have been filed against former Massachusetts contractor employee Rambler Gallo, who allegedly compromised the Discovery Bay Water Treatment Facility after fulfilling his role as the facility's instrumentation and control tech from July 2016 to December 2020, BleepingComputer reports. While in his post, Gallo had remote control software installed in both his employer's systems and personal computer, the latter of which he had used to access Discovery Bay's network after he resigned from his company in January 2021, according to the indictment. Remote commands that would facilitate the removal of water pressure, chemical level, and filtration monitoring systems were sent by Gallo using his personal computer, threatening the lives of the 15,000 individuals' served by Discovery Bay. "The indictment charges Gallo with one count of transmitting a program, information, code, and command to cause damage to a protected computer, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(5)(A) and (c)(4)(B)(i). If convicted, Gallo faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000," said the Justice Department.