Michigan Reports Cyberattacks on Nine Water Systems as FBI Investigates

Michigan reported cyberattacks on nine of its water systems on Saturday, days after Minnesota disclosed similar attacks on more than 30 water systems, and the FBI said it is investigating both, according to Al Jazeera and the Associated Press. A Michigan official said all systems continued to operate safely.

Dale George, director of communications for Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, said the state received a federal alert on Tuesday about attempts to tamper with operational technology in water systems and soon afterward received “a small number of reports from Michigan communities indicating activity consistent with what federal agencies described.” According to Al Jazeera, the FBI said in an earlier advisory that at least seven states had reported incidents, though only Minnesota and Michigan have been identified publicly. “The FBI and our interagency partners are fully engaged to protect critical infrastructure,” the bureau said in its Saturday statement.

No culprit has been named. Minnesota IT Services said most of its confirmed attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment, and that affected systems did not necessarily mean water disruptions. As of Thursday there were no active requests for residents to change their water use, though some had been made earlier in the week. An advisory the previous week from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and other critical infrastructure’s operational controls. Federal law enforcement has previously indicted Iranian hackers for allegedly targeting water infrastructure, Al Jazeera noted.

Politics has already entered the response. At a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, President Trump claimed without evidence that the Minnesota attacks were the state’s fault, saying, “I think Minnesota is behind it,” and “I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.” Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, suggested Iran was behind the attack. He said Trump “knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too,” and blamed Trump’s cuts to federal employees for making the country more vulnerable. Al Jazeera noted that Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power and water desalination plants, during the war.