Missouri Water Systems Face Iran Cyber Threat Warning

The feds are sounding the alarm that Iranian hackers are targeting state's water systems. It's already happened in at least 7 states and the government is warning security measures need to be taken.

Let's start with what we know. Wired is reporting that they have seen a memo that connected dozens of cyberattacks on water systems in Minnesota to Iranian hackers. They added "the FBI has warned that the attacks have hit utilities in no fewer than seven states". Minnesota is the only state they have publicly confirmed has been attacked so far.

Missouri is one of the states that has been given a warning from America's Cyber Defense Agency. They state they are "observing a significant increase in cyber threat actors targeting programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in the Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector". They say that those in charge of water systems in Missouri and other states should do the following:

• Disconnect the PLC from the internet. Remote access for operational purposes should go through a VPN or gateway device, not directly to the PLC.
• Enable password protection and change default passwords.
• Only allow remote access from known engineering laptops or other critical OT assets.

What can hackers do to water systems in Missouri and other states?

If hackers get access to the water systems infrastructure, they can lock out local administrators from their systems. They can force states to change from automatic control of water systems to manual. In worst case scenarios, they can change water pressure system drops or overflows to make them unusable or cause critical failures.

Let's be clear that the feds have not said an attack has been discovered in Missouri, but they haven't denied it either. Hopefully this alert is taken seriously by state and local water system security administrators before the threat becomes a real crisis.