The FBI reported Thursday that “malicious cyber actors” targeted water and wastewater utility companies in at least seven states over the prior four days, resulting in a “loss of monitoring and control functionality.”
Officials in Michigan, Minnesota and New Jersey have reported attacks.
Federal authorities suspect hackers connected to Iran carried out the attacks, according to The New York Times. But U.S. officials have not definitively determined the source of the disruptions.
Multiple experts told The Hill the modest security systems in place at water treatment facilities make those sites “vulnerable” to attacks. While they could not be certain of Iran’s involvement, they said the behavior was consistent with Tehran’s modus operandi.
“From what we know about this campaign right now, it's really about targeting the low-hanging fruit … systems or organizations that lack basic security practices,” said Lennart Maschmeyer, an assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Maschmeyer noted the programmable controllers at the sites subject to the attacks, manufactured by Allen-Bradley of Rockwell Automation, are “highly specialized” but old. If those systems are connected to the internet, an attack is possible, he warned.
On Friday, President Trump blamed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for the attacks on water utilities in the state, calling the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee “corrupt” and downplaying Iran's involvement.
“They like to say, ‘Oh, it was Iran.’ Iran should be so lucky. Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota,” Trump told reporters at Camp David.
Walz fired back, saying the attacks are what “modern warfare looks like” and show the president “has no plan to win” the war with the Islamic Republic.
There are roughly 150,000 public water systems in the country, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Luckily for Americans, the systems used at various infrastructure sites “tend to be quite different,” reducing the likelihood of a widespread cyberattack, Alex Jones, chair of the Syracuse University Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, told The Hill.
The Hill's Max Rego has more at TheHill.com
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