Hackers were determined, only a miracle saved local residents from a complete shutdown of water.
A couple of days ago, it became known about a cyberattack on the Municipal Water District of North Texas (NTMWD), carried out by the hacker group "Daixin". This happened shortly after the attack on the Aliquippa Water Authority in Pennsylvania, which allegedly involved the Iranian group "Cyber Av3ngers".
In the case of NTMWD, the Daixin hackers claim that they blocked between 300 and 400 county servers on November 11, which is confirmed by a corresponding phone breach report published by NTMWD the following day. Moreover, interruptions, judging by the red bar on the NTMWD website, are observed to this day.
The Daixin leak site indicates that the attackers gained access to 33,844 NTMWD files, while also claiming that a full leak of this data will take place in the near future. Daixin representatives stated that they did not disable NTMWD's technical equipment and did not interrupt the water supply.
NTMWD serves approximately 2 million residents in 10 North Texas counties, providing critical water, sanitation, and solid waste management services.
The answer to the question about a potential water supply shutdown, asked by representatives of the DataBreaches portal, was very ambiguous: members of the group noted that they did not find any equipment for managing water supply in the compromised network, but if they had such access, they would probably use it. Since if the water supply stopped completely, local residents, according to the attackers, would force NTMWD to pay a ransom in order to regain access to the water supply.
Daixin claims that negotiations with NTMWD began on November 12 and ended without success on November 22 after representatives of NTMWD stopped communicating.
Meanwhile, NTMWD representatives informed the public that the incident affected their business network, but basic water supply, sanitation and waste disposal services were not disrupted. They also confirmed that their phone system was affected by the incident, but it is expected to be restored this week. The company engaged third-party cybersecurity specialists to investigate the incident.
It is noteworthy that the hackers recommended that Texas residents "carefully check their water bills." Based on this statement, there is a possibility that cybercriminals have corrupted something in the billing software, and local residents may be unpleasantly surprised when they receive the next payment.
We'll probably hear more about Daixin hackers in the near future.
A couple of days ago, it became known about a cyberattack on the Municipal Water District of North Texas (NTMWD), carried out by the hacker group "Daixin". This happened shortly after the attack on the Aliquippa Water Authority in Pennsylvania, which allegedly involved the Iranian group "Cyber Av3ngers".
In the case of NTMWD, the Daixin hackers claim that they blocked between 300 and 400 county servers on November 11, which is confirmed by a corresponding phone breach report published by NTMWD the following day. Moreover, interruptions, judging by the red bar on the NTMWD website, are observed to this day.
The Daixin leak site indicates that the attackers gained access to 33,844 NTMWD files, while also claiming that a full leak of this data will take place in the near future. Daixin representatives stated that they did not disable NTMWD's technical equipment and did not interrupt the water supply.
NTMWD serves approximately 2 million residents in 10 North Texas counties, providing critical water, sanitation, and solid waste management services.
The answer to the question about a potential water supply shutdown, asked by representatives of the DataBreaches portal, was very ambiguous: members of the group noted that they did not find any equipment for managing water supply in the compromised network, but if they had such access, they would probably use it. Since if the water supply stopped completely, local residents, according to the attackers, would force NTMWD to pay a ransom in order to regain access to the water supply.
Daixin claims that negotiations with NTMWD began on November 12 and ended without success on November 22 after representatives of NTMWD stopped communicating.
Meanwhile, NTMWD representatives informed the public that the incident affected their business network, but basic water supply, sanitation and waste disposal services were not disrupted. They also confirmed that their phone system was affected by the incident, but it is expected to be restored this week. The company engaged third-party cybersecurity specialists to investigate the incident.
It is noteworthy that the hackers recommended that Texas residents "carefully check their water bills." Based on this statement, there is a possibility that cybercriminals have corrupted something in the billing software, and local residents may be unpleasantly surprised when they receive the next payment.
We'll probably hear more about Daixin hackers in the near future.
