Russia-linked hacking group claims to have targeted Indiana water plant

CNN —

Hackers targeted a wastewater treatment plant in Indiana on Friday evening, prompting plant managers to send maintenance personnel to investigate the suspicious activity, a local official told CNN.

A Russia-linked hacking group claimed responsibility. The same group claimed credit for a string of hacking incidents against water facilities in Texas earlier this year.

“We were targeted and we have not been compromised,” Jim Ankrum, general manager of Tipton Municipal Utilities, told CNN. TMU provides electricity, water and wastewater treatment for Tipton, a town of 5,000 people that is about 40 miles north of Indianapolis.

“TMU experienced minimal disruption and remained operational at all times,” Ankrum said.

Ankrum said federal authorities were investigating the incident. He referred further questions to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. A CISA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

On Saturday, Russian-speaking hackers posted a video to social media claiming credit for a cyberattack on a TMU wastewater treatment plant. Ankrum told CNN he had not watched the video but emphasized that the plant continued to operate throughout the cyberattack.

It’s the latest apparent effort by a group of Russian-speaking hackers to target water facilities in small American towns. A cyberattack in January claimed by the group caused a tank at a water facility in Muleshoe, Texas, to overflow.

US officials have been warning that the country’s water systems need to shore up their defenses in the face of persistent threats from state and criminal actors.

Cyberattacks are hitting water and wastewater systems “throughout the United