Hacktivists hacked an Irish water utility and interrupted the water supply
December 09, 2023
Threat actors launched a cyberattack on an Irish water utility causing the interruption of the power supply for two days.
Threat actors hacked a small water utility in Ireland and interrupted the water supply for two days.
The victim of the attack is a private group water utility in the Erris area, the incident impacted 180 homeowners.
According to the Irish media, the residents of the Binghamstown/Drum were without their water supply on Thursday and Friday. The personnel at the impacted utility worked to repair the Eurotronics water pumping system hit by the cyber attack.
“Our caretaker went down and when he got to the pumphouse, up on the screen was a sign ‘You have been hacked’. Down with Israel was written on it and the name of the company that hacked us,” Noel Walsh, a member of the group water scheme, said. “Eurotronics supply a lot of equipment to schemes across the country.”
Mr Walsh announced that the water facility is currently improving their security systems. He confirmed that the security breach caused a big inconvenience for the population.
“Irish Water would probably have far greater resources for firewalls to withstand this but they knocked ours off and we could not circumvent it. It took all day Friday to circumvent it so we could let the water flow manually,” he added.
The WesternPeople website reported that the attackers are politically motivated and have chosen the equipment due to the fact it originated in Israel.
The threat actors defaced the user interface of the water pumping system, they posted an anti-Israel message.
Recently Iranian threat actors hacked the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa (MWAA) and took control of one of their booster stations. The Authority pointed out that the attack did not impact the operations at the facility, the water supply, and the drinking water.
The pro-Hamas threat actors took over a Unitronics Vision system.
On its Telegram channel, Cyber Av3ngers announced that it had targeted several SCADA systems at Israel water facilities. The group added that “every Equipment ” Made In Israel ” Is Cyber Av3ngers Legal Target!”
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Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Irish water utility)