In Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the Municipal Water Authority announced that hackers attempted to take control of a system that manages a water station.
Despite the intrusion, there was no risk to the supply or quality of drinking water for citizens. The attack is attributed to a hacking group calling itself Cyber Av3ngers and linked to Iran. It appears that the hackers targeted an industrial control system (ICS) from Israeli company Unitronics, with an image suggesting control of a Unitronics Vision programmable logic controller (PLC).
Although the alarm was quickly raised and the compromised system was disabled, this attack is yet another example of the cyber threats facing water infrastructure.
See also: Hackers use AI tools to bypass biometric protection methods
Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) are often exposed online without authentication, making them vulnerable to attacks. The Cyber Av3ngers group claims to have compromised several water treatment plants in Israel, but exaggerates the impact of their attacks. We know that they publish fake data and claim it was stolen from a targeted organization. Hackers often focus on industrial control systems, affecting physical processes.
Cyberattacks uncommon , with reports of attacks on Industrial Control Systems (ICS).
US authorities are investigating the incident, while CISA provides a vulnerability scanning service for organizations in the water sector.
Source: securityweek.com
