Iran threatens ‘critical’ cyberattacks on US energy and water supplies

Iran is seeking to bring the war into the US homeland with cyberattacks on computer systems controlling energy, telecommunications and water supplies. An Iranian hacking group vowed “unexpected and critical events” for American communities although recent attempts to break into infrastructure networks have failed, NBC News reported. Most commented 1 Andy Burnham’s ambitions are already proving too expensive for our economy Politics 252 comments 2 Why a crash may be coming — and what you should do Money 206 comments 3 The SNP’s reformist agenda proves independence has been put to bed Scotland 27 comments 4 Ewan McGregor on selling his ’65 Ford Mustang: I forgot I had it Driving 35 comments 5 Pakistan are a laughing stock and mid-series purge only makes things worse Cricket 21 comments The threat came amid tit-for-tat attacks in and around the Strait of Hormuz after a month’s pause in fighting, signalling a renewed battle for control after US claims that vessels are able to transit safely under cover of darkness because it has been cleared of mines. US newsletter A balanced, fair and fact-checked take on global news and culture for our US readers. Sign up with one click You’ve successfully signed up to the US newsletter Explore our newsletters An error occurred. Please use the link below. US newsletter Explore our newsletters President Trump threatened on Tuesday that Iran would be “hit again at a much harder and higher level” if it retaliated for US strikes he said were carried out to thwart Iranian efforts to fire sea mines into the strait and develop radar facilities. Top stories 1 Top five 2027 cruise and tour packages to book with Times Holidays Promoted content When Iran did launch counterattacks, Trump’s response on Wednesday was to taunt the Tehran regime with a social-media post suggesting the waterway should be named after him. Advertisement “Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” posted Trump , 80. “Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!” Top stories 1 Action on triple lock would calm bond market, says Jim O’Neill Economics 2 Bristol and Brighton living costs ‘now higher than Paris’ Property & Home 3 Andy Burnham pledges to save Jodrell Bank observatory from closure Science 4 ‘Now we do not play’: the Gazan children banned from flying kites Middle East 5 Estonia welcomes Sweden’s prisoners after saying no to Britain Europe Iranian state media said an American missile killed four people at a wedding party in the coastal town of Kuhestak on Tuesday — two women and two children aged four and 16 — and wounded 68 more. The aftermath of US strike on a wedding ceremony Iranian Red Crescent/AFP/Getty Images Iran also said that the US attacks killed four members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and ten members of the Guard’s volunteer Basij forces. “Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished,” Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, posted on X. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command (Centcom), said the US military was “aware of the reports [of the wedding deaths and injuries], which originated from Iranian state media, and we are looking into them”. He would not say if Centcom had launched a formal investigation. Advertisement Iran called Trump’s bluff by launching a widespread response including missiles and drones launched at US bases in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. On Wednesday, the Saudi shipping company Bahri said two Filipino sailors were killed in an attack late on Monday as their vessel transited the strait. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said that the US took military action this week to keep the strait open. “They’ve lost control of the straits. They put a bunch of mines in there. We were able to successfully destroy those mines and so the shipping lanes are now even broader,” Rubio told Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show . “But they keep shooting at things and they keep shooting at ships. So we will continue to target those things that pose an imminent threat to our forces and to global shipping in the straits. The straits will remain open, and they will not be under Iranian control,” he added. Asked about Iran’s president offering to resume the memorandum of understanding, which set out a road to a peace deal in June, Rubio added: “Well, look, that ship in many ways has sailed, no pun intended, with regards to the straits. The core issue here is they’re never going to have a nuclear weapon … As long as they continue to endeavour or claim to want one, they’re going to pay a price for it. That price is going to be primarily economic, but we reserve the right, as we said, to take military action when necessary.” Advertisement On Wednesday, the US economic squeeze on Iran continued to exert pressure as its currency hit another record low. Traders in Tehran were exchanging 2.2 million rials for one US dollar, a 10 per cent rise from last week’s record. A military aircraft ready to take off on the day US Central Command/Reuters Threats of cyber warfare follow a successful Iranian hack attack that disabled an unidentified British power plant for four days last month, described by UK security officials as a “warning shot” about its ability to target critical infrastructure. “Soon the United States will witness unexpected and critical events in the energy, water and telecommunications industries,” the Iranian hacking group Apt Iran said on Telegram on Sunday. The FBI said last month that it was investigating a series of cyberattacks on municipal water systems in at least seven states. In Minnesota, the hackers targeted more than 30 municipal water facilities, all without success. Days before these attacks, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (Cisa) warned that Iranian hackers were trying to break into internet-connected devices used to manage American infrastructure. In a second alert two weeks ago, the agency advised all critical infrastructure organisations to enhance their defences against hacking. Advertisement President Trump in the Oval Office Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Water and other infrastructure systems often rely on basic computers for day-to-day operations, making them vulnerable even to unsophisticated attacks, cybersecurity experts told NBC News. Some are connected to the internet to help employees control machinery remotely, making them targets for AI-assisted attacks. “Using AI to generate exploitation scripts represents an evolution in threat-actor capabilities, dramatically reducing the technical expertise and time required to develop working … exploitation scripts and malicious tools,” Cisa said in an alert on August 19. “Threat actors can easily collect public information about vulnerabilities and weaknesses, find exposed and exploitable PLCs [programmable logic controllers — industrial computers used by the government], and use AI-generated scripts to act on that information,” it added. On Tuesday evening, Trump reverted to the call for Iranians to overthrow the regime that he first made on the day he launched the war six months ago. Since then he has avoided talks of regime change. Advertisement “I’m not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table, as ABC Fake News reported. I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement,” he posted. He added that the US had “almost total control of the Hormuz Strait” and Iran’s economy was “totally collapsing”. He said: “They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” Asked on Wednesday if he would send the CIA to Iran to stoke revolution, Trump told reporters: “I’d love to tell you that but it wouldn’t be appropriate to say. But I mean, I understand their plight. They’re being shot right now … the regime is getting weaker and weaker by the day and at some point, they’re not going to be able to shoot so easily because I think the people aren’t going to take it.”