Published on: October 15, 2024
American Water Works was the victim of a cyberattack. The report states that hackers were able to breach their network and various systems on Oct. 3. This caused the company to pause billing while it fixed the issue. It was also forced to take down its customer portal entirely.
American Water Works claims to be America’s largest source of regulated water on its website and services over 14 million citizens. It manages more than 500 facilities across multiple US states, meaning a serious hack would have a broad impact on America.
Fortunately, American Water does not believe that the hack will impact its operations or financial condition, meaning the 14 million customers that rely on American Water Works won’t be without water during the investigation and recovery period.
“Upon learning of this activity, the Company immediately activated its incident response protocols,” American Water Works said in its regulatory filings. “The Company has taken and will continue to take steps to protect its systems and data.”
This includes informing law enforcement, filing important reports, and using experts to patch the vulnerabilities that led to the hack.
However, it must be noted that the company transparently noted that while they do not believe any operations were impacted, they are still unsure of the full scope of the breach. It’s possible, but very unlikely, that the hack isn’t over.
Government officials are concerned that the attack came from China. Tensions between the US and China have continued to rise, and the two countries have reportedly been engaging in an increasingly more aggressive cyber battle.
Recently, hackers linked to the Chinese government launched an attack on US broadband and telecom companies. At the same time, China regularly reports American cyber attacks on its infrastructure in the media. China has even referenced the USA as an “empire of hackers.”
Despite the concern, there is no conclusive evidence linking China to the attack on American Water Works at this time.