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Bournemouth Water’s managing director Bob Taylor has warned that cybercrime is a “key concern” for the water industry.
Speaking at WWT’s Smart Water Networks Conference, Taylor talked about challenges facing the industry including skills shortages and leakage, but emphasised that cybercrime is a worldwide issue for utilities.
He said: “Cybercrime is a key concern certainly in my own company in the South West at the moment, it is something that our board is very interested in.
“We are hearing stories on a regular basis in other parts of the world of utility businesses that have been hacked by outside agencies. The last one I think was an Israeli power station and its happening regularly in the US, this could be us.
“We’ve had the phishing attack, where people are pretending to be part of your staff and asking for payments to be made – we’ve had those at Bournemouth actually and it’s something that is happening more and more as time goes on.”
Last November, Chancellor George Osborne warned that National Grid could be under threat of a significant cyber attack by extremist group Isis, as part of its plot to target UK infrastructure.
The warning came alongside a pledge to double government spend on cyber security to £1.9 billion by 2020.
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