(NEW YORK) — Two municipal water systems in New Jersey were targeted in cyberattacks in the last week, widely thought to be the work of Iran, the state said Wednesday.
The affected utilities, which were not named, were temporarily blinded when automated systems went down. Both utilities shifted to manual operations and the state said there was no disruption to service and both systems have been “secured with strengthened access controls.”
“Our New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC) responded to two cyber incidents affecting New Jersey municipal water systems this past week. The NJCCIC is working directly with the affected utilities alongside our federal partners at the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” the state said Wednesday.
“The investigations found that the incidents involved vulnerable internet-exposed control systems, which temporarily limited operators’ ability to monitor or manage them remotely. In both cases, staff shifted quickly to manual operations, and there was no disruption to service. Customers had uninterrupted access to safe drinking water throughout,” the state said.
Sources told ABC News that Iran remains the prime suspect, perhaps showing how it could retaliate as President Donald Trump threatens to escalate the war.
Officials are also assessing whether this could be the work of a different state actor mimicking Iran’s tactics in a possible attempt to influence what the U.S. does next.
In Georgia, the Clayton County Water Authority briefly issued a boil-water advisory when it was targeted by hackers. Columbus Water Works said it also detected an intrusion, but drinking water was unaffected.
The recent hacks, affecting water and wastewater utilities in at least a dozen states, exploited a vulnerability in widely used utility software, sources told ABC News.
A fix has been issued, but utilities across the country that run the same software are racing to see if they were also hacked.
So far, it appears nobody has become sick, and there have been no widespread disruptions to water supplies. However, officials are still working to understand the scope of the hack and what could have happened to systems Americans depend on every day.
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