Did Iran hack water systems in at least seven US states? 2026Updated 5 August 2026Many were surprised in late July when the US state of Minnesota reported that more than 30 of its state water systems had faced a "co-ordinated cyber-attack". Days later, the FBI warned cyber-attacks had been reported in at least seven states and "some of that activity degraded water operations". Local authorities in the states of New Jersey, South Dakota and Georgia have since said they were similarly attacked.
It is not clear if they are among the seven states.The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) is reportedly probing a possible Iranian connection, according to US media. Although US President Donald Trump has not blamed Iran, cyber-experts have told the BBC it is likely the attack was directed by Tehran.Morgan Wright, a former US state department anti-terror adviser, said he expects the number of states impacted to grow and that "no state is immune".The US has 152,000 public drinking water systems and more than 16,000 wastewater treatment facilities.Here is what you need to know. Is Iran behind these attacks?Wright told the BBC that the sort of cyber-attacks that have recently reported are usually attributed to North Korea or Iran.
"And who are we in conflict with right now? So they become, they go to the top of the listed terms of nations capable, and also having a desire to do something like this," he said, referring to the ongoing war in the Middle East. US investigators are also looking into whether the hackers could have posed as Iran-based as a ruse to sow further discord amid the US war with Iran, according to the BBC's US partner CBS.Jake Braun, former acting White House Deputy National Cyber Director, told the BBC that the Trump administration is involved in its own information war and therefore it might be unlikely to admit that Iran did infiltrate US water infrastructure, even if it was confirmed.
At a cabinet meeting on 31 July, Trump, a Republican, blamed "grossly incompetent" Minnesota officials, including Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, for the water hack. Walz responded: "Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too."Iran has yet to comment on these incidents, but Tehran has repeatedly denied involvement in other cyber-attacks over the years, which include water systems, presidential campaigns, hospitals and a casino company in Las Vegas in 2014. After a 2016 accusation linked to the targeting of banks and a dam outside New York City, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the US should prove such accusations.
Iran has "never had on its agenda any dangerous measures in cyberspace and does not support such moves", spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said on state TV at the time. Does this fit a pattern for Iran? Iran has a documented history of this kind of activity, experts have told the BBC.
They noted that groups supportive of Iran, but located outside the country could be responsible. "It makes it harder to assign attribution because if all of your attacks and groups are coming out of Iran, you can pretty much link it to Iran," Wright said, noting that such a tactic offers bad actors plausible deniability. "They do it so that their fingerprints aren't directly on it," he added.Most of the Iranian cyber-attacks against the US and Israel this year have been carried out by a group called Handala, BBC Verify has found.The US justice department has linked the group to Iran, external, saying they have been working on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
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