More than 100 water systems were hit in July cyberattacks

CISA disclosed that in July 2026 over 100 internet-exposed water and wastewater systems—mostly small, rural utilities across multiple U.S. states—were targeted, typically via PLCs connected directly to cellular modems. Analysts suspect Iran-affiliated actors and note attackers are using AI-generated exploitation scripts against Siemens S7 PLCs; CISA recommended disconnecting PLCs from the internet, using VPNs/gateways for remote access, enforcing strong credentials/MFA, and allowlisting remote IPs to mitigate the campaign.