Iranian hacker group alleges it breached Bakersfield, Visalia, Chico water systems

An alleged breach of several California water systems by an Iranian-linked hacker group did not compromise any water production or delivery systems, according California Water Service Company.

“We have conducted a preliminary scan of our internal IT and OT networks and have no signs of any compromise within our IT, water production, and delivery systems at this time,” an email Friday from Yvonne Kingman, director of communications for CalWater, states.

Kingman said the investigation is continuing and she didn’t have further information in response to a follow up question about whether the hacker group, called  Handala, had accessed other systems, such as CalWater’s billing system.

Handala stated Thursday that it had gained access to several systems, including in Bakersfield, Visalia and Chico and showed screenshots of what it said were residents’ bills, according to several news sites. It claimed to have five gigabytes of data from the alleged breach on its website, according to Iranian news network Press TV.

In a statement carried by Iran’s state broadcaster, Handala said it could disrupt the water systems if it chose to but had refrained from doing so as a “warning” to Washington, D.C.

The alleged hack was in retaliation for U.S. strikes that may have damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran near the strait of Hormuz.

A review by cyber experts, using Dataminr, an AI tool, shows “…that the group reached a GPS correction server and a customer billing database. Neither system controls water treatment or distribution, and Dataminr states that OT or ICS disruption is not confirmed in this incident,” according to an article on the website Security.