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The risk of hackers using artificial intelligence to infiltrate water utilities and potentially alter water treatment processes is no longer theoretical, according to cybersecurity expert John Walsh, who says the technology helps adversaries identify vulnerabilities faster than defenders can patch them.
Walsh, field chief technology officer for government and critical infrastructure at cybersecurity firm IGEL, told Newsweek that AI is accelerating cyber threats targeting operational technology systems that control water treatment plants, energy facilities and other critical infrastructure.
While malicious actors have long targeted industrial control systems, he said geopolitical tensions, including the Iran war, coupled with rapidly advancing AI capabilities, have increased the urgency of the threat.
“We have a geopolitical situation that seems to be targeting infrastructure. We have AI that’s entering into the picture, which is accelerating the velocity, how fast things are happening,” Walsh said. “What’s really happening is the urgency is being increased by the geopolitical situation and the use of AI.”
Water and wastewater systems have become a growing concern for cybersecurity experts because many facilities are run by local governments with limited resources and aging infrastructure.
Last week, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with federal and international partners, released a warning that threat actors are conducting reconnaissance against Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are widely used to automate operations at water treatment plants, energy facilities, chemical plants and other critical infrastructure sites.
Successful attacks of this nature could disrupt water access, undermine public confidence and potentially have ripple effects across food production, healthcare and other sectors, Walsh warned.
“When you target Rockwell, Schneider, Siemens, you’re targeting 70 percent of the controllers that don’t just run water and wastewater,” Walsh said. “It runs our chemical facilities, our energy facilities, basically all our process and discrete automation.”
He noted that attacks against water infrastructure could have consequences beyond temporary service disruptions.
“People lose confidence in water and wastewater, and we can only go without water for seven days,” Walsh said. “From a terrorism standpoint, a very effective and maybe even more effective approach than power.”
Walsh added that water disruptions could affect farming and food production because modern agriculture relies heavily on automated systems and industrial control technologies.
Recent Threats Are Warning
Federal agencies have repeatedly warned about cyber threats to America’s water infrastructure. Walsh pointed to a broader pattern of attacks on industrial control systems, particularly those linked to Iranian actors and other nation-state adversaries.
“This is something as an industry, it’s not new,” he said. “If you look at the history over the last several years, specifically with the Iranian attacks, I’d go as far as saying they’ve started in 2023 really to hone their craft.”
He cited attacks involving industrial technology platforms manufactured by companies including Rockwell and Siemens, as well as a recent incident involving a power facility in the United Kingdom.
“What we’re seeing is a pattern and it’s systemic,” Walsh said. “They’re honing their craft and their methodologies and they’re demonstrating capability.”
According to Walsh, many smaller utilities may be especially vulnerable because they often operate with limited staff and budgets.
“These utilities are small, they’re resource constrained,” he said. “Depending on what their capabilities are, there may be easier targets.”
How Attack Could Unfold
One of the biggest concerns is the possibility that hackers could manipulate industrial control systems without immediately alerting operators.
Water treatment facilities rely on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to automate functions such as opening valves, monitoring equipment and controlling chemical treatment processes.
“In the water supply, we use chemicals to purify the water. We make measurements to determine if the water is acceptable for people drinking,” Walsh said.
He said a cyberattack could theoretically create a situation in which operators receive misleading information indicating systems are functioning normally when they are not.
“We saw years ago with Stuxnet, where the centrifuges were reporting that everything was operating fine, yet they weren’t,” Walsh said, referring to the cyber operation that targeted Iran’s nuclear program. “You could see the same thing happening in any kind of utility.”
“You think everything’s running well and then you find out it’s not, because everything is reporting it’s working well,” he added.
Walsh emphasized that cybercriminals and nation-state actors may have different goals, ranging from service disruption to attempts to manipulate treatment processes.
“The big thing with water is making sure that when you look at an incident, what was the adversary’s objective?” he said. “Was it to shut you down or was it to chemically poison the water?”
AI Is Accelerating the Threat
Walsh said AI is changing the cybersecurity landscape because it can help attackers discover vulnerabilities, analyze industrial software and rapidly modify existing attack techniques.
“AI is accelerating the ability of the adversary to identify a vulnerability and exploit it,” he said.
According to Walsh, nation-state actors can purchase or otherwise acquire access to commercially available industrial technologies and use AI tools to search for weaknesses.
“A nation-state can gain access to a Rockwell architecture and then they can use AI to look at the software and look for vulnerabilities and exploits,” he said.
AI can also help attackers evade traditional cyber defenses by rapidly altering malware and attack methods.
“People can use AI to modify the attack, and they can modify the attack at such a rate that it’s hard to keep up,” Walsh said. “We see more zero days where it gets through before we understand it.”
While defenders are also using AI to detect threats, Walsh argued that detection alone is not enough.
“The traditional detect, patch, respond model can’t carry the entire burden,” he said. “Critical infrastructure really needs a more prevention-based security model.”
He also warned that AI itself could become a target if organizations don’t implement security controls.
“If AI depends on learning and the adversary can get to the AI model to feed it the wrong information, then you get the wrong answers,” Walsh said. “Everybody’s racing for capability. We’ve got to slow down and make sure, especially with operational technology and critical things, that you have some governance over the AI and some security.”
For Walsh, the core challenge is that cyber threats are evolving faster than many critical infrastructure operators can adapt.
“There’s going to be something that’s going to happen that creates a new vulnerability that an adversary will detect, especially with AI, sometime in the future,” he said. “Your architecture needs to be able to handle that.”
What Can Consumers Do?
Walsh said the average American is unlikely to be a direct target of the sophisticated cyberattacks aimed at water utilities and other critical infrastructure, but individuals can still take steps to improve their own cybersecurity and push for stronger protections in their communities.
“I think the good news is that the kind of attacks that we’re talking about…they’re not going to target you and me,” Walsh said. Instead, attackers are primarily focused on disrupting critical infrastructure, government services and the broader economy.
For individuals, Walsh recommended basic cybersecurity measures such as using multi-factor authentication, password management tools and remaining vigilant against phishing attempts.
“If you’re not using some sort of single sign-on, password generation product that implements multi-factor authentication, you’re vulnerable,” he said.
Beyond personal cyber hygiene, Walsh said that consumers can help by pressing local officials to prioritize cybersecurity investments for water and wastewater systems. He said many of the security standards promoted by the CISA remain recommendations rather than legal requirements.
“These are warnings. They’re recommendations, but they’re not law,” Walsh said. He compared the situation to the government’s phased rollout of mandatory automobile safety features such as airbags, which ultimately drove industrywide adoption and lower costs. “I think the way to impact this as homeowners and citizens is to get our local communities and our government to put some teeth behind the things we already know we need to do and get the budgets in place to get them done.”
Walsh also noted that some homeowners choose to install water filtration systems as an added layer of protection, though he emphasized that the most meaningful long-term solution is securing the public infrastructure that communities depend on.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Sam Wilson.
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