Iranian hackers are targeting critical US infrastructure, US agencies warn

The US government warns that Iranian-backed hackers are stepping up their tactics by targeting critical US infrastructure systems with the goal of causing disruption.

In joint advice Released on Tuesday, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the US cybersecurity agency CISA and the US Department of Energy collectively warned that Iranian government hackers have been exploiting Internet-connected systems used in a variety of sectors. These include water and wastewater services, energy, and local government facilities. The agencies did not specifically name any of the targets, but said the attacks were intended to cause “disruptive effects within the United States” and had already resulted in “operational disruptions and financial losses.”

The hackers targeted programmable logic controllers and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) products, which are used to control and manage industrial equipment and systems in critical infrastructure operations, the agencies said. The agencies said the hackers were able to manipulate information displayed on these devices and maliciously interact with project files that store important device settings.

The agencies said the attacks targeting critical infrastructure are a marked escalation in Iranian hackers’ tactics, likely in response to the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, which began on Feb. 28 with airstrikes that killed the country’s leader.

The notice also comes shortly after US President Trump threatened Iran with a social media post Earlier on Tuesday, writing: “An entire civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not capitulate to an agreement with the United States to open the Strait of Hormuz, a key point for global maritime traffic, by the end of the day.

Since the beginning of the war, a Iranian government-backed hacking group called Handala has been linked to several high-profile cyberattacks, including a disruptive breach at US medical technology giant Stryker, in which hackers Remotely wipe thousands of employee devices using the company’s own security tools.

The FBI recently blamed the Handala hackers for filtering partial content from FBI Director Kash Patel’s private email account.

Iran has also attacked several US-owned and operated data centers across the region. with missiles and air strikescausing instability and disruption of cloud services across the region.