A hacking group that has been closely tied to Iran and has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack last month that impacted more than 30 Minnesota water systems, according to a report.<\/p>\n
A hacking group that has been closely tied to Iran and has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack last month that impacted more than 30 Minnesota water systems, according to a report.<\/p>\n
Threat Beat, which is run by Auburn University\u2019s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, reports<\/a> that APT IRAN posted on Telegram, \u201cThe attack on Minnesota was the work of the CyberAv3ngers group and us, and we take direct responsibility for it.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: Cyberattack on over 30 Minnesota water systems may be linked to Iran<\/a><\/p>\n The McCrary Institute<\/a> is a nonpartisan think tank that\u2019s widely regarded as a leading program on cybersecurity \u2014 even advising U.S. leaders in the space.<\/p>\n Its report through Threat Beat states that APT IRAN and CyberAv3ngers had already known to be closely linked before the recent post on the Minnesota cyberattack, and CyberAv3ngers is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the U.S. government and Rewards for Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says on its website<\/a> that the IRGC is designated as a foreign terrorist organization that has targeted U.S. technology \u2014 including water and wastewater systems \u2014 through CyberAv3ngers and on behalf of the Iranian government dating back to 2023.<\/p>\n CyberAv3ngers previously posted on its own Telegram channel that it \u201chas carried out attacks on U.S. infrastructure, and we warn America to back down,\u201d Threat Beat reports. The latest post from APT Iran added that \u201cour intention in attacking Minnesota was only to warn\u201d of its abilities and its intention to retaliate against \u201cany country that poses a threat to Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reached out to Minnesota IT Services (MNIT), the FBI and CISA for comment. MNIT and the FBI said they were aware of the posts by CyberAv3ngers and APT Iran but declined comment. CISA has yet to respond.<\/p>\n MNIT also has yet to respond to an inquiry as to whether or not the state\u2019s investigation into the water systems issues is still ongoing.<\/p>\n Background<\/p>\n On July 26 and 27, attacks aimed \u201coperational technology\u201d\u00a0caused temporary equipment malfunctions at more than 30 community water utility systems, according to MNIT, which previously said that no ransom was detected.<\/p>\n All communities were able to resolve the issues quickly enough that no major disruptions were caused. However, it caused some cities, like Braham, and state leaders to raise concerns with system vulnerability.<\/p>\n In the following days, roughly a dozen other states reported similar issues, and on July 30, multiple U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News that investigators were looking into Iran\u2019s possible links to the attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n RELATED: Hackers aren\u2019t just stealing data anymore \u2014 Minnesota cyberattack shows they\u2019re targeting your water<\/a><\/p>\n Jonathan\u00a0Wrolstad, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Minnesota, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the U.S. government recently warned of similar incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cThey put out an advisory saying that Iranian groups were interested in going after critical infrastructure and they highlighted really this exact type of scenario,\u201d Wrolstad said.<\/p>\n Despite that, President Donald Trump denied Iran\u2019s involvement and instead blamed Minnesota for the issues.<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0Minnesota water systems cyberattack: Trump says state to blame, not Iran<\/a><\/p>\n Since then, agencies involved in the investigation have been mostly mum about any developments, with no new issues reported by local communities.<\/p>\n The FBI\u2019s Cyber Division late last month warned of \u201cmalicious cyber actors targeting water and wastewater sector\u201d programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and more recently highlighted concerns with Gunra ransomware<\/a>, which is used to target critical government infrastructure. However, it doesn\u2019t appear to be linked to the water system attacks.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Adam Schiff introduced federal legislation to strengthen the country\u2019s water infrastructure, and specifically cited the Minnesota cyberattacks.<\/p>\n Klobuchar is hoping to secure $600 million for the \u201cWater Cyber Shield Act.\u201d She is actively looking for Republican support and thinks she\u2019ll get it because water systems in \u201cRed\u201d and \u201cBlue\u201d states are vulnerable. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Cyberattack<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Iran<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Minnesota<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Water<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hacking group that has been closely tied to Iran and has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[6943,34,1200,5533],"class_list":["post-248393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-cyberattack","tag-iran","tag-minnesota","tag-water"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117091711288781207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}