OLDSMAR, Fla. — In 2021, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and Oldsmar city officials held a news conference regarding a hack on the city's water plant.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said someone hacked the system twice and messed with the mixture of chemicals.
“Because of this security breach, we are asking that all governmental entities within the Tampa Bay area with critical infrastructure components actively review their computer safety protocols and do the necessary updates that are consistent with the most up-to-date practices," Gualtieri said during the press conference.
During a cyber security panel discussion last month held by the American Society for Public Administration, former Oldsmar City Manager Al Braithwaite claimed the hack didn't actually happen.
“It was reported as a non-event by the employee that by the end of the investigation was assumed to have caused it," said Braithwaite. He then added that the same employee who caused the issue fixed the error within two minutes.
We reached out to FBI Tampa and they gave us the following statement:
The FBI is not commenting beyond the provided statement:
"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."
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said the following:
"The investigation is still open, and we have no comment."