# US government says Iran-linked hackers are disrupting American water and energy providers

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/us-government-says-iran-linked-hackers-are-disrupting-american-water-and-energy-providers/
- Published: 2026-07-23T17:27:08+00:00
- Updated: 2026-07-23T22:35:27+00:00
- Original publisher: TechCrunch
- Original article: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/23/us-government-says-iran-linked-hackers-are-disrupting-american-water-and-energy-providers/
- Topics: Americas, Cybersecurity, Government, Middle East, Politics, Software, Technology, World

## Key points

- Iran-linked hackers are targeting US water and energy control systems.
- Altered controllers could create unsafe conditions and outages.
- Agencies urge owners to secure internet-exposed industrial equipment.

## Summary

US agencies say Iranian state-backed hackers are actively targeting industrial control systems at American water and energy providers, seeking to cause disruption during the ongoing conflict involving Iran, the US and Israel. The warning matters because these systems operate critical services, and compromised controllers could lead to outages or unsafe conditions without operators being alerted.

The FBI, NSA, Department of Energy and CISA said the attackers are targeting internet-connected programmable logic controllers, including equipment from Rockwell, Schneider Electric and Siemens. In one incident, hackers reportedly altered programming that managed critical shutdowns and alarms, while agencies warned that potentially any internet-exposed industrial control system could be vulnerable. The activity follows other Iran-linked cyberattacks since February, including a claimed breach of California water provider Cal Water, although the company said it found no operational-network intrusion.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.