Hackers Targeted Municipal Water Systems In 7 States This Week, FBI Says (nbcnews.com)
- Reference: 0184793334
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/07/31/209200/hackers-targeted-municipal-water-systems-in-7-states-this-week-fbi-says
- Source link: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/hackers-targeted-municipal-water-systems-7-states-week-fbi-says-rcna590210
> Cyberattacks targeting municipal water systems have [1]been reported in at least seven states this week , prompting the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency to warn utilities nationwide that hackers are trying to disrupt critical water infrastructure. In a public service announcement Thursday, the agencies said water and wastewater utilities have reported incidents to the FBI, with some malicious activity degrading water operations. The announcement does not name the states.
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> The warning comes after hackers targeted [2]more than 30 municipal water facilities in Minnesota in an attack that had hallmarks of Iranian meddling, according to a law enforcement official. It is still under investigation. A spokesperson for Minnesota's information technology services agency said Thursday there was no indication the breaches contaminated any municipal water supplies. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a separate alert that some larger attacks on water infrastructure had "resulted in boil water notices and sustained manual operations," though it did not say where.
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> [...] The federal [3]advisory said the malicious cyber actors, or MCAs, targeted specific brands of control systems used by municipal water utilities, though the FBI and the EPA urged operators of all systems to take precautions. [...] The agencies said the hackers remotely accessed internet-facing devices, changed IP addresses and passwords, and caused utilities to lose monitoring and control capabilities. The federal advisory calls on system operators to remove programmable logical controllers, or PLCs, from direct internet exposure by putting them behind secure gateways and firewalls; use strong passwords; and limit communications between authorized control system devices through access control lists.
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/hackers-targeted-municipal-water-systems-7-states-week-fbi-says-rcna590210
[2] https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/07/29/057255/more-than-30-minnesota-water-systems-targeted-in-cyberattack
[3] https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2026/07/30/cisa-urges-water-and-wastewater-systems-sector-protect-ot-against-activity-targeting-plcs
RO is a somewhat mainstream thing for wealthy (Score:3)
> Your tinfoil hat might have a crack, maybe make a new one.
Actually RO is a mainstream health and fitness thing, at least for those that can afford it. Including many liberals.
From Google: "A reverse osmosis (RO) filter removes 95% to 99% of dissolved salts, heavy metals, chemicals, and other microscopic pollutants from tap water using a semi-permeable membrane. People get RO systems to achieve high-purity drinking water, better-tasting coffee and food, and reliable protection against stubborn toxins like lead, arsenic, and PFAS.
Tap water crises stem from agi
Blame (Score:2)
Apparently, Trump thinks that the governor did it. Why he should do such a thing is beyond me.
Re: (Score:2)
Tim Waltz is a criminal mastermind. He's been hacking other states' water so that he can keep all 10,000 of his lakes topped off at the expense of hard working Americans.
Re: (Score:2)
Has anyone invested in bottled water companies recently?
Iranian meddling or ... (Score:4, Interesting)
> ... an attack that had hallmarks of Iranian meddling, according to a law enforcement official.
Trump puts the blame on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. From [1]Trump blames governor, not Iran, for Minnesota cyberattack [usatoday.com]
> "They blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent," Trump said [w/o presenting any evidence] at a July 31 Cabinet meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. "I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota."
Governor Walz has a different theory (also from that article):
> "Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too," Walz said in a statement in response to the president's remarks. "This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran."
> Walz blamed Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, the former government-slashing agency once led by tech executive Elon Musk, for gutting the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "DOGE took an axe to CISA and left the U.S. exposed to cyberattacks. Thankfully, our experts in Minnesota were able to identify the vulnerability quickly and work with local communities to stop it," Walz said.
As seven states have been impacted, either Iran or Governor Walz has been very busy ... :-)
[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/07/31/trump-thinks-iran-not-responsible-for-minnesota-cyberattack/91122610007/
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if the Governor is responsible for network security in his state, then isn't the president ultimately responsible for network security in all states? Did Trump just admit his administration is incompetent again?
Anthropic and OpenAI just testing their product. (Score:2)
They prompted to "test controlling my water supply."
-nothing to see here
I wonder who... (Score:2)
Trumpers: "Those Iranian goatfuckers will never be able to hack our 21st century American data centers!" Iranian IT experts who have been fighting against Israeli hackers for years: "This should be pretty easy by comparison! They're nowhere near as secure as the Israelis!"
States? (Score:2)
Are we sure it wasn't Claude or chatgpt?
Al-Clauda (Score:3)
> Are we sure it wasn't Claude or chatgpt?
It was Al-Clauda, a Claude based AI with some supplemental training materials.
These are likely just probes (Score:2)
The attackers are assessing defenses: what are they, what are their response times, what do the responses look like, etc. The real attack(s) will come somewhere else and will be much more thorough, because they'll be informed by the intelligence gathered from these probes. Given the state of US infrastructure security ("miserable") any competent attacker should be able to do a great deal of physical, economic, and societal damage rather quickly...
...which is one of many, many reasons why starting a war
They learned it from us (Score:4, Insightful)
I seem to recall a exploit designed to trash process controllers that was made to destroy Iranian infrastructure. I'm just STUX about the detail. Maybe someone on the NET can find the details.
Re: (Score:2)
From US, or from the Israelis? You are correct about stuxnet deliberately targeting the industrial controller they were using for (checks notes)... uranium enrichment? Sounds like we're both right: "On 1 June 2012, an article in The New York Times reported that Stuxnet was part of a US and Israeli intelligence operation named Operation Olympic Games, devised by the NSA under President George W. Bush and executed under President Barack Obama."
Re: (Score:1)
Ya, those dumb Iranians would NEVER have thought of this idea by themselves.