Several MN water facilities targeted by cyber attacks
(FOX 9) - At least three Minnesota cities are reporting cyberattacks that have impacted water facilities on Monday and prompted a response from state authorities.
Water facility cyberattacks
What we know:
Officials in Plymouth, South St. Paul, and Braham announced on Monday they were dealing with cyberattacks at their respective water facilities.
In Plymouth, the attacks targeted their water towers and lift stations which started Sunday overnight. In South St. Paul, its water utility system was hit. In Braham, the city's water plant was knocked offline for a brief period.
Big picture view:
In a news release, Plymouth city officials said the issue seemed to be impacting a number of other cities. Braham officials said they were aware of at least four other communities that were impacted. Right now, it's unclear if one single actor is responsible for all the attacks.
All three cities say the impact of the attacks is limited. In Braham, there was a brief outage at the water plant, but officials say crews were quickly able to "mediate the cause of the outage."
Local perspective:
Officials from all three cities say residents can continue with water use as normal and the drinking water is safe.
South St. Paul officials say they are working with state and federal authorities to respond to the attack.
State responding to cyberattacks
What they're saying:
In a statement to FOX 9, Minnesota IT Services said they were working to assist local municipalities in responding to the attacks and continuing to assess the extent of the attacks.
"Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) is providing cybersecurity and technical support to state and local partners responding to this incident. Our teams are helping assess potential cyber impacts, share threat information, and support response and remediation efforts. We are working closely with our partners to protect critical systems while the investigation continues. This is an evolving situation, and we don't know how many entities have been impacted yet.
"Cybersecurity incidents require a coordinated, methodical response. Minnesota has established cybersecurity capabilities and partnerships to help state and local governments prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents such as this. MNIT will continue working with our partners to assess the situation, support affected communities, and share confirmed information as it becomes available."