"Federal and state officials are racing to address an assault on the nation’s water supply that they believe is the work of Iranian hackers."
"In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration proposed creating stronger cybersecurity guidelines to better safeguard the nation’s water supply from hackers.
The steps were modest, but necessary, officials said at the time: Many municipalities lacked even basic protections, and the computers that monitor and adjust water quality, including chemical-treatment levels, were easy-to-find targets for a would-be intruder.
The E.P.A. rescinded the order, however, after Republican-led states and industry groups sued to block its enforcement. They argued that the E.P.A. lacked authority for the move and that smaller, underfunded utilities would struggle to adopt the new standards.
The episode is just one of several in recent years in which efforts to bolster the cyberdefenses of America’s water systems were blocked despite repeated attacks that highlighted vulnerabilities. Just a little more than a month after the E.P.A. proposal was killed, a small town in western Pennsylvania disclosed that a hacking group tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps briefly took control of equipment used to adjust water pressure."
Dustin Volz reports for the New York Times August 5, 2026.
SEE ALSO:
"Big US Hedge Funds Targeted By Wave Of Cyber Attacks" (Financial Times)
