Hackers breach US water facility via exposed Unitronics PLCs

CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency) is warning that threat actors breached a U.S. water facility by hacking into Unitronics programmable logic controllers (PLCs) exposed online. PLCs are crucial control and management devices in industrial settings, and hackers compromising them could have severe repercussions, such as water supply contamination through manipulating the device to alter chemical dosing. Other risks include service disruption leading to a halt in water supply and physical damage to the infrastructure by overloading pumps or opening and closing valves. CISA confirmed that hackers have already breached a U.S. water facility by hacking these devices. However, the attack did not compromise potable water safety for the served communities. "Cyber threat actors are targeting PLCs associated with WWS facilities, including an identified Unitronics PLC, at a U.S. water facility," reads CISA's alert. "In response, the affected municipality's water authority immediately took the system offline and switched to manual operations—there is no known risk to the municipality's drinking water or water supply." The agency underlines that the threat actors take advantage of poor security practices to attack Unitronics Vision Series PLC with a human-machine interface (HMI) rather than exploit a zero-day vulnerability on the product. The recommended measures for system administrators are: While CISA's advisory did not specify the threat actor behind the attacks, Cy...