Iranian cybercriminals cut off water supply in two Irish towns

The Iranian cybercriminal group Cyber Av3ngers attacked a water pumping station in Ireland in early December 2023, causing a water outage in two towns for a couple of days. The group claims it disconnected the industrial tool manufactured and operated by an Israeli company, in support of Palestine.

The heads of the local water utility acknowledged their firewall “was not strong enough” to stop the attackers. “Our security officer came down and when he got to the pumping station he saw a message on the screen with the hacker group’s name and the words: down with Israel,” they explained.

Cyber Av3ngers is a cybercriminal group with ties to the Iranian government’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel, in October 2023, it regularly attacks western industrial infrastructure that uses Israeli equipment. In the United States, Cyber Av3ngers shut down the water supply of the small town of Aliquippa (Pennsylvania), in November 2023.