A hacker had accessed a water treatment plant in the San Francisco Bay Area in January and deleted programs that were used to treat drinking water, the US media reported. In the latest cyberattack to come to light on an American facility, the hacker used the username and password of a former employee to log into the system on January 15 and altered the settings. The security breach was detected the next day and the California facility changed the protocols and reinstalled the programs.

NBC reported that the hacker, whose name and motives are yet unknown, tried to poison the water of area that is close to the Silicon Valley, the global centre of high technology and software innovations. It cited a private report prepared by the regional intelligence centre in February. The report did not identify the facility.