Someone is hacking some American water systems. On July 30 the United States FBI posted an alert about cyberattacks on software used by water utilities in at least seven states, notably programmable logic controllers (
PLCs). The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (
CISA) published
a similar alert on the same day. Some
see Iran as behind the hacks; Iran has not claimed responsibility.
The number of impacted states has since
risen to twelve. Minnesota is one of those states, and
a government blog post observed that a "coordinated cyberattack targeted operational technology at more than 30 Minnesota community water systems on July 26 and 27." In response, president Trump
assigned blame to... governor Walz.
Clayton County, Georgia,
posted about "operational systems and water service in parts of north Clayton County [suffering] a temporary disruption."
Earlier in July CISA and the FBI, in combination with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
warned of "ongoing Iranian-affiliated cyber activity targeting internet-connected operational technology (OT) devices."
A podcast interview with New York Times cybersecurity and intelligence reporter
Dustin Volz.
Wikipedia article.