The White House has warned state governors that drinking water and wastewater utilities are facing "disruptive cyberattacks" from hostile foreign states that target critical facilities. This is reported by UNN, citing a published letter from US Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan.
Disruptive cyberattacks are affecting water and sewer systems across the United States (...) These attacks can disrupt a critical lifeline of clean and safe drinking water, and impose significant costs on affected communities
There are also reports of two recent hacker threats faced by US water utilities.
One case occurred when hackers backed by the Iranian government disabled operational equipment at water supply facilities that were still using the commonly known default administrator password.
The letter did not name the facility, but details included in the associated advisory link the hack to one that occurred last November at the Aliquippa Municipal Water Authority in western Pennsylvania. Apparently, then hackers hacked into a programmable logic controller manufactured by Unitronics and forced the device's screen to display an anti-Israeli message.
In response, employees of the utility temporarily shut down the pump that supplies drinking water to local villages.
The second threat was publicly disclosed last month by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Officials said that a Chinese government-backed hacking group known as Volt Typhoon had established a foothold in the networks of many critical infrastructure organizations, including those in the communications, energy, transportation, and water and wastewater sectors. The report says that the hackers have positioned themselves in the IT environment in advance to conduct operations to disable many sectors of critical infrastructure in the event of a crisis or conflict with the United States.
The letter announces the formation of a working group on water sector cybersecurity to identify vulnerabilities in US water systems.
Recall
Chinese-made cranes operating in U.S. ports have been found to have remote access communication devices, raising national security concerns about the potential risk of sabotage and espionage.
Earlier, UNN reported with reference to Reuters that China provides economic and security assistance to Russia against the backdrop of its war in Ukraine, supporting the industrial base of the aggressor country, and also poses threats of influencing the 2024 US elections. There are also expectations of potential aggression against Taiwan by China.