{"id":8739,"date":"2026-08-06T23:07:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8739"},"modified":"2026-08-06T23:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T23:07:58","slug":"why-us-water-systems-are-vulnerable-to-foreign-cyberattacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8739","title":{"rendered":"Why US water systems are vulnerable to foreign cyberattacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n A cyberattack on water systems in a dozen states is exposing years of under-investment in critical infrastructure and how US adversaries can threaten services that everyday Americans take for granted, according to industry experts and current and former US officials.\n <\/p>\n

Read more What eggs, jalape\u00f1os, chickens and chameleons have in common this summer: salmonella<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The cyber intrusions in some cases led to water pressure drops and flooding at facilities, according to the FBI, but did not compromise the safety of drinking water, according to state and local officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n US officials are now asking themselves why the hackers, who struck during a scorching heat wave, didn\u2019t go further in causing damage at the water facilities. Manipulating devices that monitor chemical dosing, for example, could have jeopardized the safety of the drinking water.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDo we have the C team and they couldn\u2019t do worse?\u201d one US official said. \u201cHow bad could it be if the A team turned to the US?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Iran is a suspect in the hacks, but US officials have not yet confirmed Tehran\u2019s involvement.\n <\/p>\n

\n For years, US officials have warned that sabotage-capable hacking teams from Russia, China and, to a lesser extent, Iran, were developing access to sensitive industrial networks across the US and were lying in wait for a moment of crisis to cause disruptions. The soft underbelly of American infrastructure \u2014 local water and power plants that serve military facilities, for example \u00ad\u2014 have been targeted.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, water system operators in modest-sized towns and counties are at the forefront of investigation into one of the most serious cyberattacks on the sector in years. States from South Dakota to Georgia have been affected.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that water utilities are under-resourced and vulnerable to cyberattacks, and it\u2019s no secret that our adversaries know it,\u201d said Caitlin Durkovich, a former deputy homeland security adviser in the Biden White House. \u201cBy targeting critical infrastructure, they can undermine public confidence in our leaders and impose significant costs with relatively little effort. They\u2019ve spent years positioning themselves for exactly this kind of disruption.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Erin Thomas, a spokesperson for the Clayton County Water Authority in central Georgia, said her team hasn\u2019t experienced a malicious cyber incident at scale before. The water authority is investigating \u201cunauthorized cyber activity\u201d that may have caused a water pump station to fail, triggering a boil-water notice in the early hours of July 27.\n <\/p>\n

Read more Rep. Max Miller faces growing calls to resign from Senate Republicans<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur main concern when this happened was to make sure that we got the system up and running,\u201d she told CNN on Thursday. (They accomplished that in a matter of hours on July 27).\n <\/p>\n

\n In Rapid City, South Dakota, a \u201ccyber incident\u201d hit one of the lift stations that serves the city\u2019s wastewater system, officials announced July 31.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re not surprised by it,\u201d Mike Theis, Rapid City\u2019s public works director, when asked about the possibility of being targeted by a foreign adversary in wartime. He couldn\u2019t recall a time when Rapid City had experienced a similar cyberattack. Theis credited the \u201cquick action from our employees who noticed abnormal behavior\u201d on computer systems and isolated them from the internet.\n <\/p>\n

\n The hacking incidents have triggered federal and state policy responses. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has announced about $9 million in grants to try to strengthen the cyber defenses of water systems across New York.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California plans to introduce legislation next week that would give the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s greater authorities to help boost water cyber defenses, Schiff\u2019s spokesperson told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Coupled with national security concerns is a deep frustration among water-sector specialists and cyber experts that there is still so much infrastructure that is directly accessible from the internet.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor the past 20 years, experts have been telling utilities to make sure their systems were not directly accessible from the internet,\u201d said Marty Edwards, former head of the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team. \u201cThis recent set of intrusions is the result of complacency and a lack of budget prioritization.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Read more Why engaging your core isn\u2019t always the answer<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cyberattack on water systems in a dozen states is exposing years of under-investment in critical infrastructure and how US adversaries can threaten services that everyday Americans take for granted, according to industry experts and current and former US officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy US water systems are vulnerable to foreign cyberattacks - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8739\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why US water systems are vulnerable to foreign cyberattacks - 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