The municipal water authority of the Pennsylvania town of Aliquippa announced on Saturday that one of its water stations was hacked by an Iran-backed criminal group called the “Cyber Av3ngers.”
The Iranian group loaded the water station’s computer screens with messages saying “Down with Israel!” and “Every equipment ‘Made in Israel’ Is Cyber Av3ngers legal target.”
The station attacked by the Iranian hackers is part of the water pressure system for Raccoon and Potter Townships in Pennsylvania.
According to Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa board chairman Matthew Mottes, alarms were triggered as soon as the system was compromised, and the water quality of the two townships was never in serious danger.
Mottes said the water booster station uses equipment made by Unitronics, an automation company headquartered in Israel. The compromised system was disabled for safety as soon as the hack was detected.
Security Week said footage broadcast by a local news station suggests the target of the hack was a Unitronics Vision system, “a programmable logic controller (PLC) with an integrated human-machine interface (HMI).”
“Unitronics Vision products have been known to be affected by critical vulnerabilities that could expose devices to attacks,” Security Week said. “On the other hand, HMIs are often left exposed to the Internet and are accessible without authentication, making them an easy target even for low-skilled threat actors.”
The district’s congressional representative, Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA), said on Sunday he is “closely monitoring this cyberattack.”
Deluzio said federal officials are involved in the investigation. The Pennsylvania State Police have also launched a criminal investigation.
“Attacks on our critical infrastructure like water are unacceptable. I intend to push for a full investigation here and accountability for the attackers, and I will continue the important bipartisan work on the House Armed Services Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation (CITI) Subcommittee to shore up America’s defenses,” he said.
The Cyber Av3ngers are among the terrorist-supporting Iranian hacker groups that threatened to increase their attacks on Israel after the Hamas atrocities of October 7.
The Cyber Av3ngers claim to have disrupted several water and power infrastructure targets in Israel. Some of those claims were conclusively debunked by international cybersecurity analysts, who say the Cyber Av3ngers have a habit of using data files and screenshots from attacks perpetrated by other groups to claim they were the perpetrators.
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned on October 31 that Iran would become an increasing cyber threat to the United States during the Israel-Hamas war. Wray and other expert witnesses told Congress that Iranian hackers are rapidly improving their skills and choosing increasingly ambitious targets, with a particular interest in critical infrastructure like water and power.