AIBRIEF
Michigan joined Minnesota in reporting cyberattacks on local water utilities — the second state in a week — alongside a separate federal advisory that Iranian linked hackers have been targeting industrial controls at small plants.
Michigan on Saturday became the second state in a week to report cyberattacks on its local water systems, with nine utilities reporting incidents and the FBI now investigating a cross-state pattern that began in Minnesota.
All nine Michigan systems are operating, Dale George, communications director for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, said. He characterized the activity as "consistent with what federal agencies described" in a Tuesday alert about tampering with operational technology, the industrial controls that run pumps, valves, and treatment processes. Michigan's reports came after Minnesota said more than 30 water systems there had been targeted.
The FBI is investigating and on Thursday declined to identify who the bureau believes is responsible. A joint FBI/CISA advisory last week warned that Iranian-linked hackers have been targeting the operational technology at US water and wastewater systems. The advisory did not name the Michigan or Minnesota incidents, and federal officials have not publicly tied those specific attacks to any country.
Most local water and wastewater plants are small, publicly owned, and staffed for routine operations, not the patching cadence state-level adversaries require. A 2016 Justice Department indictment of Iranian hackers in a cyberattack on a small dam near New York City remains a historical marker, not present-day attribution.
What remains unknown: a public culprit for these incidents, and any indication of what minimum cyber standard small utilities will be asked to meet, and who pays for it.