{"id":16978,"date":"2026-07-31T11:21:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T03:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:21:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T03:21:44","slug":"us-cyber-defense-agency-warns-hackers-are-increasingly-targeting-water-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978","title":{"rendered":"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"877\" height=\"578\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16979\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png 877w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027-300x198.png 300w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027-768x506.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 877px) 100vw, 877px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. government\u2019s civilian cyber defense agency on Thursday warned of a significant increase in hackers targeting technology used to maintain and \u200ccontrol water and wastewater systems, and said operators of such systems should remove them from the internet as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The warning comes two days after Minnesota\u2019s state IT agency said more than 30 community water systems in the state were targeted in a &#8220;coordinated cyberattack\u201d on July 26 and 27. The FBI said in a statement, opens new tab late on Thursday that water and wastewater utility companies \u200bin at least seven states have reported incidents to the bureau, and that some of that activity &#8220;degraded water operations.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. officials and investigators reviewing the \u200bmatter say it is likely Iranian-linked hackers are behind the Minnesota attacks, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Representatives for the \u2060Iranian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The attacks come amid an intensification of thewar between the U.S. and Iran, with the two sides \u200btrading missile attacks, and ongoing threats from both sides for increased destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iranian-linked hacking activity targeting U.S. water facilities predates the war, but a range of groups have \u200bcarried out a series of prominent cyberattacks on domestic U.S. organizations, including medical services company Stryker and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House referred questions about the Minnesota incidents to the FBI. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment about alleged Iranian involvement in the incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State and local officials have said the Minnesota attacks \u200bdid not threaten water safety, but that in some cases certain systems were taken offline and had to be reset manually. Thursday&#8217;s alert from the Cybersecurity and \u200bInfrastructure Security Agency warned that hackers have, in some cases, changed passwords to lock out operators and disconnect certain devices from the networks, resulting in &#8220;boil water notices and sustained manual \u200coperations.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unidentified victims \u2060have reported to the FBI that &#8220;operational effects&#8221; of the attacks have, in certain places, included loss of pressure and flooding, according to the FBI&#8217;s statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Minnesota IT Services, the information technology agency for the state&#8217;s executive branch, said in a statement that the investigation into the incidents is ongoing. Most of the confirmed cases involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and the computer screens operators use to manage them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Israel, Minnesota&#8217;s chief information \u200bsecurity officer, said in the statement that \u200bthe state has &#8220;provided relevant information to \u2060the federal government, which is evaluating this activity in the broader national context and leading efforts to determine whether it can be attributed to a specific threat actor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>IRAN SUSPECTED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cynthia Kaiser, a former senior FBI cybersecurity official, told Reuters that it \u200bwas highly likely that the Minnesota hacking campaigns were a continuation of prior Iranian-affiliated targeting of PLCs and other critical \u200binfrastructure technology noted \u2060by CISA, the FBI, NSA and other federal agencies in an April advisory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That advisory was updated on July 22 to include a wider scope of targeted devices than originally tracked as well as more current techniques and activities carried out by the hackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The fact that a new advisory came out is really indicative of either a broadening of \u2060the campaign, \u200bnew technical details or a renewal of the activity, and probably a combination of all those \u200bthings,&#8221; said Kaiser, now an executive with cybersecurity firm Halcyon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris Day, public sector chief technical officer with cybersecurity firm Tenable, said the Minnesota incidents are &#8220;consistent&#8221; with the prior Iranian-linked activity, and that the \u200bpublicly reported information of some systems being taken temporarily offline represents an &#8220;interesting escalation&#8221; to prior events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. government\u2019s civilian cyber defense agency on Thursday warned of a significant increase in hackers targeting technology used to maintain and \u200ccontrol water and wastewater systems, and said operators of such systems should remove them from the internet as soon as possible. The warning comes two days after Minnesota\u2019s state IT agency said more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":16979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2265,4296,4295],"class_list":["post-16978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-attacks","tag-systems","tag-water"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems - LISTEN WORLD<\/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:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The U.S. government\u2019s civilian cyber defense agency on Thursday warned of a significant increase in hackers targeting technology used to maintain and \u200ccontrol water and wastewater systems, and said operators of such systems should remove them from the internet as soon as possible. The warning comes two days after Minnesota\u2019s state IT agency said more [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T03:21:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T03:21:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"877\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"578\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gina\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\",\"name\":\"LISTEN WORLD\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png\",\"width\":877,\"height\":578},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978\",\"name\":\"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems - LISTEN WORLD\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T03:21:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-31T03:21:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/3dda624796e926f7ee7a99098759bf4d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u9996\u9875\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/3dda624796e926f7ee7a99098759bf4d\",\"name\":\"Gina\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/672126d0325ed2a94002961601231f015f9619a0fff98ea74f3f8869988e885f?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/672126d0325ed2a94002961601231f015f9619a0fff98ea74f3f8869988e885f?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gina\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?author=8\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems - LISTEN WORLD","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems - LISTEN WORLD","og_description":"The U.S. government\u2019s civilian cyber defense agency on Thursday warned of a significant increase in hackers targeting technology used to maintain and \u200ccontrol water and wastewater systems, and said operators of such systems should remove them from the internet as soon as possible. The warning comes two days after Minnesota\u2019s state IT agency said more [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978","og_site_name":"LISTEN WORLD","article_published_time":"2026-07-31T03:21:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-31T03:21:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":877,"height":578,"url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gina","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/","name":"LISTEN WORLD","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u5c4f\u5e55\u622a\u56fe-2026-07-31-112027.png","width":877,"height":578},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#webpage","url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978","name":"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems - LISTEN WORLD","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2026-07-31T03:21:38+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-31T03:21:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/3dda624796e926f7ee7a99098759bf4d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16978#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u9996\u9875","item":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US cyber defense agency warns hackers are increasingly targeting water systems"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/3dda624796e926f7ee7a99098759bf4d","name":"Gina","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/672126d0325ed2a94002961601231f015f9619a0fff98ea74f3f8869988e885f?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/672126d0325ed2a94002961601231f015f9619a0fff98ea74f3f8869988e885f?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","caption":"Gina"},"url":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?author=8"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16980,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions\/16980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}