Federal authorities are warning that critical infrastructure systems in the United States could be at risk after at least seven states reported cyberattacks that interrupted their water or wastewater operations this week.
According to a joint alert from the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency, "malicious cyber actors" have been remotely tampering with some water systems' internet-connected programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, causing loss of water pressure and flooding.
The warning, issued Thursday, comes after U.S. intelligence officials said Iran was likely behind a coordinated cyberattack on more than 30 municipal water systems in Minnesota. Experts have also warned for years that U.S. water industry, which has resisted regulation efforts, has been vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Intelligence agencies have not definitively concluded that Tehran was responsible for the disruptions in Minnesota, but the hack follows urgent warnings by federal cybersecurity officials that Iran for months has been targeting internet-exposed devices that control operations at water, wastewater and energy facilities in the U.S. In July, federal cybersecurity authorities specifically warned...
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