Small Water Systems Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks, 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

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

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