Quincy drinking water remains safe from cyber threats

QUINCY (WGEM) — As cyberattacks on water infrastructure in larger metropolitan areas keep federal officials on high alert, public works directors in the Tri-States say local drinking water is safe from virtual threats.

Quincy Director of Public Works Jeffrey Conte says the city’s water treatment plant is designed specifically to withstand potential cyber threats by remaining completely offline for controls. Unlike larger cities that rely heavily on the internet to route water, Quincy’s plant is operated locally using physical buttons and switches.

“Since we are a surface water treatment system and required to be there anyway when we’re treating the water, there’s really no incentive for us to go to a system like you may have in a larger city that’s really computer controlled,” Conte said. “Ours is very simplistic.”

While Quincy does use web-based software to log data and monitor water levels remotely, those programs have no physical control over the pumps. A bad actor might be able to view the data, but they cannot touch the water.

Conte says even in a worst-case scenario, hackers could not disrupt operations.

“Even if there was to be some kind of cyberattack, it would not affect our operations,” Conte said. “There’s really nothing that any foreign actor or bad actor could do to impact our water system.”

Across the Mississippi River, officials in Hannibal are taking a similar offline approach.

The Hannibal Board of Public Works confirmed that their water systems are also not connected to the internet. Officials there stated they are continuing to strive for new ways to be further removed from the digital network.