In December, cyber attacks hit several water utilities. Among them was the tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania.
It supplies water to only around 20,000 people.
Federal authorities at the time said Iranian-backed hackers targeted a piece of equipment specifically because it was made in Israel.
“If you told me to list 10 things that would go wrong with our water authority, this would not be on the list,” Matthew Mottes, the chairman of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, said.
Such attacks on seemingly innocent institutions could increase in 2024.
Shortly after the December incident, Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger was on Bloomberg, talking about the issue.
“Each and every day American companies’ critical services are facing cyber attacks and we need to do more to lock doors to defend against them. Yes sometime well see an increase in particular types of attacks but every single day we have too many unlocked doors and open windows in our digital cyberspace,” Anne Neuberger, a deputy national security adviser, said.
Ms. Neuberger said that every day, American private and public companies suffer from attempted cyber attacks. She highlighted ways for people to defend against them.
“There are basic cyber security practices like changing default passwords and limiting administrative account access that could prevent those accounts being successful,” Ms. Neuberger added.
Also just last month, a group reportedly linked to Israel launched a cyber attack against gas stations in Iran.
The incident disrupted service at around 70 percent of all gas stations in the country.
