FBI, NSA & CISA warns: Iranian hackers hit critical US infrastructure & safety systems
US federal agencies have issued a joint warning regarding Iranian-backed hackers targeting critical infrastructure, specifically water and energy systems. The attackers are manipulating industrial control systems to disrupt operations and cause financial damage.
Why it matters
The targeting of critical infrastructure poses a significant national security threat, highlighting the vulnerability of internet-connected industrial machinery to state-sponsored cyber warfare.
US federal cyber agencies have issued an urgent joint warning, claiming that Iranian state-backed hackers are actively breaching and tampering with industrial control systems at US water and energy providers. In an updated security advisory, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of Energy warned that “potentially all internet-exposed” industrial control systems across critical US infrastructure could be vulnerable to attack.‘Tampering with safety alarms and emergency shutdowns’According to federal investigators, the Iranian-backed hackers are targeting programmable logic controllers, which are the specialised digital computers that govern physical machinery, valves, and power switches across utility networks.As per the warning, by altering display data and programming logic, the attackers have forced systems into dangerous operational states without alerting human supervisors.
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