Foreign hackers targeted Colorado water systems in August, governor's office says

Foreign hackers targeted and manipulated equipment in two local Colorado water systems last month, a spokesperson for Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on Friday.

The incidents occurred at two privately owned utilities, each serving less than 200 people, and there was "no impact to public safety or water services," the spokesperson, Ally Sullivan, said in a statement.

Sullivan said the governor's office "cannot confirm what foreign actors may have been involved, but we are aware of ongoing efforts across the nation by an Iranian-backed group to access drinking water and wastewater systems."

The hackers managed to change equipment settings, including disabling remote access and alarms and altering pumping cycles, Sullivan said.

"These were brief incidents and the risks were quickly addressed by the providers themselves, who subsequently alerted the state," Sullivan said. "To our knowledge, treatment processes and water quality were not impacted at either provider."

The incidents, which occurred in late August, happened several weeks after a wave of cyberattacks targeting equipment in local water systems across roughly a dozen states and 100 water entities, according to an August 21 advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

CISA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Previous attacks targeted systems controlling critical infrastructure

Cybersecurity experts previously said the earlier attacks appeared similar to previous Iranian-linked hacking activity targeting programmable logic controllers, computer devices used to control machinery within critical infrastructure networks.

Some of the previous attacks included "degraded water operations" including changing IP addresses and turning on and setting passwords, "resulting in a loss of view, and in some cases function, of connected equipment in targeted facilities," the FBI said in a July 30 statement.