The Biden administration sent a letter to every governor on Tuesday, warning about ongoing cyberattacks carried out by operators linked to Iran and China that are taking aim at U.S. water systems.

In the letter, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan also announced the creation of a Water Sector Cybersecurity Task Force and invited each state’s health and homeland security deputies to a meeting Thursday to promote best practices to secure water systems.

“Disabling cyberattacks are striking water and wastewater systems throughout the United States. These attacks have the potential to disrupt the critical lifeline of clean and safe drinking water, as well as impose significant costs on affected communities,” Sullivan and Regan said in the letter. “We are writing to describe the nature of these threats and request your partnership on important actions to secure water systems against the increasing risks from and consequences of these attacks.”

Sullivan and Regan outlined two recent and ongoing threats:

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. has “targeted and disabled a common type of operational technology used at water facilities where the facility had neglected to change a default manufacturer password.”
• A China-sponsored group called Volt Typhoon has “compromised information technology of multiple critical infrastructure systems, including drinking water, in the United States and its territories.”

No examples or specifics were provided about the nature of those attacks. However, Bloomberg reported that Iran-backed hackers targeted “Israeli-made digital controls commonly used in the water and wastewater industries,” attacks that affected multiple states. 

“Drinking water and wastewater systems are a lifeline for communities, but many systems have not adopted important cybersecurity practices to thwart potential cyberattacks,” Regan said in a press release announcing Thursday’s virtual meeting. “EPA and NSC take these threats very seriously and will continue to partner with state environmental, health, and homeland security leaders to address the pervasive and challenging risk of cyberattacks on water systems.”

Further, the task force will engage the Water Sector and Water Government Coordinating Councils in an effort to form “near-term actions and strategies to reduce the risk of water systems nationwide to cyberattacks.” 

“Drinking water and wastewater systems are an attractive target for cyberattacks because they are a lifeline critical infrastructure sector but often lack the resources and technical capacity to adopt rigorous cybersecurity practices,” the letter stated. 

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