KTRH Local Houston and Texas News

KTRH Local Houston and Texas News

KTRH-AM covering local news from Houston and across Texas.

 

Hackers are Threatening Our Critical Infrastructure

IT engineer working on computer

Photo: Moment RF

A hack likely perpetrated by Russians resulted in tens of thousands of gallons of water being spilled onto the streets of the small Texas town Muleshoe. Now concerns are growing that our critical infrastructure is at risk.

With so much of American infrastructure, from water systems to traffic lights, now relying on not just computers, but also the internet, the opportunity for bad actors to do greater and greater damage is growing. Thankfully, cybersecurity expert David Malicoat says the risk right now is only moderate.

Malicoat told KTRH that, "Any system is hackable because it's made by humans, and humans are fallible, and the code has vulnerabilities." But he says the Department of Homeland Security and Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency has done a good job increasing our preparedness.

Malicoat also thinks that there is a real opportunity here to incorporate AI into the cybersecurity toolbox in order to increase preparedness and response times in the event of an attempted hack.

Overall, Malicoat doesn't think that we should be too concerned, but he did recommend keeping some extra drinking water on hand just in case.


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