Washington: Michigan has reported cyberattacks on nine water systems, following similar attacks on more than 30 water systems in Minnesota, officials said.
An official said all nine Michigan systems were operating safely and there were no known impacts posing a public health concern.
The reports surfaced after Michigan received a federal cyber alert Tuesday about attempts to tamper with operational technology at water systems. Dale George, communications director at the state's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, said the state later received reports from communities indicating activity consistent with the federal warning.
The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and operational controls in other critical infrastructure sectors.
Minnesota IT Services said most of the confirmed attacks involved technology used to remotely monitor and control equipment. It said being impacted meant investigators had confirmed malicious activity involving the technology and did not necessarily mean water service had been disrupted.
For a few hours on Monday, the city of Braham asked residents to minimise water use while officials investigated why its water plant was offline. The city said the outage was caused by a cyberattack but did not affect water quality.
In Plymouth, officials said water infrastructure communications had been restored by Tuesday afternoon following a cyberattack.
