Russian hackers sabotage water treatment facility in Texas, US

In January, a water treatment facility in Texas experienced a water system overflow due to an intrusion by a group of hackers suspected of having ties to the Kremlin, according to an analysis published on Wednesday by the Mandiant cybersecurity firm, owned by Google.

Several facilities in the U.S. have been compelled to address concerns regarding their network security in light of the analysis.

As reported by Mandiant, the infiltration was carried out by Sandworm hackers associated with Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.

Screenshots from Telegram were included in Mandiant's analysis, demonstrating a possible Sandworm unit known as CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn manipulating water tanker control inputs manually.

CNN reported that the attack did not impact Muleshoe's drinking water, and the FBI's investigation is ongoing.

The Biden administration is pushing to strengthen protection against cyber threats at water treatment plants, which are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Sandworm Group

Recognized for its assaults on critical infrastructure facilities, the Sandworm hacker group is also referred to as the 74455 military unit of the GRU. The aforementioned group is implicated in several cyberattacks, including one on the Ukrainian power grid in December 2015, two on Ukraine in 2017 utilizing the NotPetya malware, multiple interferences in the 2017 French presidential election, one on the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, and one on the OPCW investigation into the Novichok poisoning.

Russia has been using hackers as next-generation proxies for years. The Sandworm group is the Kremlin's most significant proxy in cyberattacks.

"We also judge Sandworm to present a significant proliferation risk for new cyber attack concepts and methods. Continued advancements and in-the-wild use of the group's information technology and operational technology cyber attack capabilities have also likely lowered the barrier of entry for other state and non-state actors to replicate and develop their cyber attack programs." said in the report.

Following China and Iran, Russia became the third nation to be referenced in analogous assaults against the United States with the assault on the Muleshoe Water Treatment facility situated in close proximity to the New Mexico border.

Source: Newsroom