Cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems investigated as officials warn
about Iranian hackers
[July 31, 2026]
By JAMIE STENGLE and ERIC TUCKER
Authorities were working Thursday to find the source of cyberattacks
that targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota and came amid warnings
that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems.
Minnesota IT Services said state officials had yet to identify who was
behind the attacks that took place Sunday and Monday. There were no
reports that residents had been impacted by the attacks, though one city
asked residents to conserve water for a couple hours while they tried to
determine what was wrong.
The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit
and a spokesperson declined to say Thursday who the bureau thought might
be responsible. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian
hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the
operational controls other critical infrastructure sectors.
Digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict, and local
water plants or healthcare facilities often lack the funds and know-how
to install the latest software patches or take other security steps.
That has made them a favorite target, both because of the relative ease
of penetrating them and because of the panic such disruptions can cause.
Iran has the “geopolitical motivations” and a recent history of
targeting water systems, said Cynthia Kaiser, the former deputy
assistant director of the FBI's cyber division who has been closely
monitoring threats to critical infrastructure from hackers linked to the
country.
“I think most credible researchers and responders would be right to
treat it like it’s Iran until proven otherwise,” added Kaiser, who is
now the senior vice president of Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center.
“When it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's really important
to call it out.”
Iran's interest in the operations of water systems inside the U.S. dates
back years. In 2016, the Justice Department charged a group of Iranian
hackers in connection with a cyberattack targeting a small dam near New
York City.
[to top of second column]
|
A water tower is seen Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Plymouth, Minn. A
cyberattack targeted the operating technology at over 30 water
systems in Minnesota, including Plymouth's, earlier this week, state
officials said. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
Minnesota IT Services said that as of Thursday, there were no active
requests from Minnesota communities for residents to modify usage of
their drinking water. The state agency said most of the confirmed
attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely
monitor and control equipment. It said that being impacted meant
investigators confirmed there was malicious activity involving the
system’s technology and didn’t mean every impacted community had
their water service disrupted.
The state agency said there are similarities among the incidents,
including timing and the types of technology used, but investigators
haven’t determined if the same culprit was behind each one.
For a few hours on Monday, the city of Braham asked residents to
minimize water use as they tried to determine why the water plant
was offline. The city of about 1,700 people, located about 70 miles
(113 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, said in a news release that
the water plant outage was due to a cyberattack, but it didn't cause
any issue with water quality.
The city said the attackers shut down the operating controls that
shut down the well and water treatment plant. That left the city for
a time only able to provide residents with the water held in the
water tower.
In Plymouth, a city of about 80,000 located outside of Minneapolis,
officials said on social media that their water infrastructure
communications had been restored by Tuesday afternoon following a
cyberattack. The city said crews were able to continue operating the
system during the outage and it didn't have any impact on water
levels or quality.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
