A leaked water-industry memo links cyberattacks on more than 30 Minnesota water and wastewater utilities to an Iran-affiliated hacking campaign, following heightened tensions since the US began its war with Iran. The incidents are significant because they appear to involve disruption of civilian critical infrastructure, including industrial-control systems, and could signal a broader threat to similarly configured utilities across the US.

Minnesota officials said some breaches disabled communications between control technology and utility equipment; Braham’s water plant briefly lost service, although no water shortages or safety threat have been confirmed. A new US cybersecurity advisory says the attacks have led to boil-water notices and prolonged manual operation, and urges utilities to remove internet access to programmable logic controllers, use strong passwords and restrict connections to trusted devices. Cybersecurity researchers suspect the Iran-linked CyberAv3ngers group, though there has been no official attribution or public claim of responsibility.