Iran-linked hackers are disrupting systems tied to key US infrastructure after President Trump threatened an all-out assault against Tehran’s bridges and power plants, American officials said Tuesday.
The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency had put out a notice “urgently warning” the private sector that hackers backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were attempting to disrupt systems tied to America’s water, energy, transportation and communications set-ups.
“The group has targeted devices spanning multiple US critical infrastructure sectors, including Government Services and Facilities (to include local municipalities), Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS), and Energy Sectors,” the CISA said in a statement.
The hackers have had some success, the US said.
“This activity has led to… disruptions across several US critical infrastructure sectors through malicious interactions,” the agency said without elaborating on the systems affected so far.
The cyberterrorists have allegedly targeted products made by Rockwell Automation’s Allen-Bradley, one of the most widely used industrial automation brands in the US, officials said.
The attacks are aimed at the programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, that essentially act as the brain of the systems used in power and water plants.
The notice called on utilities and government agencies to make sure that none of their PLCs were connected to the Web, which could make them vulnerable to a cyberattack.
The warning from the CISA was echoed by the FBI, NSA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and US Cyber Command.
Iran-linked hackers have proven themselves successful at targeting the US during the war, with the Handala group aiming at Stryker, a Michigan-based medical equipment company, last month.
The logo of the Iran-linked hacking group was blasted across company login pages during the cyberattack, with Handala boasting that it had seized 50 terabytes of “critical data” from the medical giant, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The latest warning from cybersecurity officials was issued just hours before President Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to agree to his terms for a peace deal or face a widespread attack on its civilian infrastructure.
The president threatened Iran’s power plants and bridges, along with an ominous warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
Iran, which slammed Trump’s latest ultimatum, has warned of widespread retaliatory attacks against the US and Israel if the president makes good on his promise.
