{"id":26497,"date":"2024-10-08T23:20:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T23:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/108044808"},"modified":"2024-10-08T23:20:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T23:20:07","slug":"americas-largest-water-utility-hit-by-cyberattack-at-time-of-rising-threats-against-u-s-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/americas-largest-water-utility-hit-by-cyberattack-at-time-of-rising-threats-against-u-s-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"America&#8217;s largest water utility hit by cyberattack at time of rising threats against U.S. infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"InlineImage-imageEmbed\" id=\"ArticleBody-InlineImage-108044839\" data-test=\"InlineImage\">\n<div class=\"InlineImage-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<p>Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p><span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"SpecialReportArticle-QuoteInBody-1\"><span class=\"waslinkname\">American Water<\/span><span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span>, the largest water utility in the U.S., disclosed that it had been hit by a cyberattack.<\/p>\n<p>The Camden, New Jersey-based company said in <span class=\"waslinkname\">a security statement on its website<\/span> that it had learned of &#8220;unauthorized activity in our computer networks and systems&#8221; last Thursday, which it determined &#8220;to be the result of a cybersecurity incident.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The company said on Tuesday that it shut down its customer service portal, and as a result, its billing function &#8220;until further notice&#8221; and will not charge any late fees or other fees related to billing as long as the system is down.<\/p>\n<p>Some recent hacks of major U.S. companies have brought key online systems to a halt and created chaos for consumers and businesses, such as <span class=\"waslinkname\">the hack of UnitedHealth<\/span> which led to nationwide difficulty among patients needs prescriptions filled and health-care professionals needing to be paid for services.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"waslinkname\">Hacks targeting U.S. water infrastructure<\/span>, in particular, have been increasing, with some of the attacks linked to geopolitical rivals of the U.S., including Iran, Russia and China.<\/p>\n<p>Taking out critical national infrastructure has become a top priority for foreign-linked cybercriminals. &#8220;All drinking water and wastewater systems are at risk \u2014 large and small, urban and rural,&#8221; an EPA spokesman recently told CNBC.<\/p>\n<p>American Water provides drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations.<\/p>\n<p>One recent Russian-linked hack in January of a water filtration plant in a small Texas town, Muleshoe was located near a U.S. Air Force base. &#8220;Water is among the least mature in terms of security,&#8221; Adam Isles, head of cybersecurity practice for Chertoff Group,&nbsp;<span class=\"waslinkname\">recently told CNBC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI&nbsp;<span class=\"waslinkname\">warned Congress<\/span>&nbsp;in February that Chinese hackers had penetrated deeply into United States&#8217; cyber infrastructure in an attempt to cause damage, targeting water treatment plans, the electrical grid, transportation systems and other critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>America Water said it remains early in the investigation and &#8220;currently believes&#8221; that no water or wastewater facilities or operations have been impacted and water remains safe to drink.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement and third-party cybersecurity experts are now involved, the company said.<\/p>\n<p>American Water did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.<\/p>\n<p>The rising cybercrime wave targeting key water infrastructure led the Environmental Protection Agency to issue an enforcement alert warning that 70% of water systems it inspected do not fully comply with requirements in the Safe Drinking Water Act. Without quantifying an exact number, the EPA said some have &#8220;<span class=\"waslinkname\">alarming cybersecurity vulnerabilities&#8221;<\/span>&nbsp;\u2014 default passwords that have not been updated, vulnerable single login setups and former employees who retained systems access.<\/p>\n<p>American Water said it first learned of the unauthorized computer access on October 3, and was subsequently able to determine it was a cyberattack. It said turning off customer systems was intended to protect data, though it added that it is too soon to know whether any customer information is at risk.<\/p>\n<p>An American Water spokesman declined to comment beyond the official security statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div role=\"region\" aria-labelledby=\"Placeholder-ArticleBody-Video-107346792\">\n<div role=\"button\" id=\"Placeholder-ArticleBody-Video-107346792\" class=\"PlaceHolder-wrapper\" data-vilynx-id=\"7000325647\" data-test=\"VideoPlaceHolder\">\n<div class=\"InlineVideo-videoEmbed\" id=\"InlineVideo-0\" data-test=\"InlineVideo\">\n<div class=\"InlineVideo-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"InlineVideo-inlineThumbnailContainer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/americas-largest-water-utility-hit-by-cyberattack-at-time-of-rising-threats-against-u-s-infrastructure.jpg\" alt=\"Service hacking by China is meant to create 'panic and chaos', says Fmr. CISA Director Chris Krebs\"><span class=\"InlineVideo-videoButton\"><\/span><span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images American Water, the largest water utility in the U.S., disclosed that it had been hit by a cyberattack. The Camden, New Jersey-based company said in a security statement on its website that it had learned of &#8220;unauthorized activity in our computer networks and systems&#8221; last Thursday, which &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-26497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26497"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=26497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}