Water treatment facilities across the country and in Michigan had their passwords changed during what officials call a “coordinated cyberattack” in July, according to U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin.
In an Aug. 10 edition of her Youtube show, the “Intel Brief,” on which the senator breaks down the biggest topics across the U.S. and Michigan, Slotkin said the state got an alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the network security wing of U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about an ongoing attack.
“The state of Michigan got that bulletin,,” Slotkin said, “looked at our own water treatment facilities and realized, holy crap, the same thing was going on in our treatment facilities.”
According to a July 30 alert issued by the CISA, water facilities across the U.S., at the time, were encouraged to remove “operational technology from the internet as soon as possible,” as threat actors targeted water organizations of all sizes.
The activity, feds say, resulted in boil water notices, among other things. Mitigations from water entities also included changing passwords and allowing IP access only to known laptops.
“There is real warfare going on,” Slotkin said, both in the Middle East and in the U.S.
Slotkin said all information indicates that it was an attack from Iran in response to military action by the Trump administration, although federal officials, including President Trump, have yet to confirm if that was the case.
The cyberattack, which targeted more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota, Michigan and several other states, was reported by the New York Times to be conducted by Iranian hackers, although investigators have not definitively determined who was responsible.
There are no known impacts that posed a public health concern, officials with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said earlier this month.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Slotkin reveals how water system cyberattack hit Michigan. What she said
Reporting by Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
