Small Water Systems Vulnerable to Cyberattacks, Operators and Experts Warn

A U.S. Senate panel was told that rural districts can’t reliably thwart sophisticated electronic sabotage—and that ‘bad actors’ know it.

This file photo provided by the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, Pa., shows the screen of a Unitronics device that was hacked on Nov. 25, 2023. Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa via AP

Cyberattacks increasingly threaten America’s water and wastewater systems, operators and experts told a Senate panel on Feb. 4.

“Cyberincidents” have increased over the past 18 months since the issuance of a Government Accountability Office report in August 2024 that found that 14 percent of the nation’s 170,000 water and wastewater systems—nearly 24,000—had reported at least one cyberincident during the previous three months, up from 11.5 percent during the same period the year before.