Iranian officials behind water system attacks sanctioned

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpss Cyber-Electronic Command Head Hamid Reza Lashgarian and five other officials of the IRGC-EC have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for their involvement in last year's cyberattacks against U.S. water systems that were claimed by Iranian hacking group Cyber Av3ngers, reports Nextgov. Attacks by Cyber Av3ngers, which compromised the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa in Pennsylvania and 10 other water utilities, involved the targeting of programmable logic controllers by Israeli firm Unitronics in retaliation to the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. "Although this particular operation did not disrupt any critical services, unauthorized access to critical infrastructure systems can enable actions that harm the public and cause devastating humanitarian consequences," said the Treasury Department. Such a development comes after Congress was urged by various water trade groups to bolster federal funding and cyber training programs in water facilities.