Cyber Attacks on US Water Systems Spread as Authorities Probe Origin

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Cyber attacks on the nation’s water supply have spread to Georgia, according to a local report.

Officials in Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, said an initial advisory to boil water had become part of a much larger investigation into the attack on America’s water supply, which last week reportedly also hit 30 water systems in Minnesota.

Devices known as programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, may have been vulnerable because they were exposed to the internet, a rep for the Clayton County Water Authority told Channel 2 Action News.

“What we realized is that some of our pump stations went down,” spokesperson Erin Thomas told the station’s Consumer Investigator Justin Gray, adding, “Things could get really dangerous if they were to be manipulated or attacked or disturbed.

“However, our team promptly were able to identify that they were down and we were able get the service restored,” she noted.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an alert last week at to the threat, noting seven states had been impacted.

A cybersecurity professor at Georgia Tech told the station he and his researchers had found thousands of vulnerabilities at 7,000 institutions and sounded the alarm.

“They are misconfigured to be exposed to internet,” Prof. Saman Zonouz said. “And we were able to discover them. If we are able to discover them, adversaries would be able as well.”

The hacking of water systems in Minnesota has been considered a “coordinated cyberattack,” local officials have said.

Local outlet Fox 9 first reported last week on four cities that had revealed they were targeted in the cyberattacks: Plymouth, South St. Paul, Maple Plain, and Braham.

The attacks are currently under investigation, but the cities said the attacks were “limited” or “mitigated.” The water systems were targeted on Sunday and Monday, according to local officials, and more than 30 communities were part of the “coordinated” effort.

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