The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Thursday warned it is seeing a “significant increase” in cyberattacks aimed at the U.S. water sector, days after dozens of water utilities in Minnesota were targeted by hackers.
The CISA alert did not attribute the recent attacks to any nation or cybercriminal group, but the agency released a separate advisory last week cautioning that Iran-affiliated hackers have been targeting internet-connected systems that manage industrial operations at utility providers across the U.S.
Two water industry officials with knowledge of the attacks in Minnesota, granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said Iranian hackers were suspected to be behind the cyber activity. Both cautioned that those determinations were not final.
CISA noted in the Thursday alert, which the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency also contributed to, that hackers are targeting programmable logic controllers in wastewater systems, which are used to manage industrial operations at water treatment plants and other critical infrastructure companies.
