US Water Tech Firm Hit by Data Breach

U.S. authorities are investigating a data breach at Micro-Comm, a small manufacturer of water utility technology based in Olathe, Kansas. The ransomware group Barracuda, which claims to be profit-motivated, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The group reportedly posted approximately 850,000 company files, totaling around 644 gigabytes of data, on August 6.

This breach, which occurred during a late July period of increased cyber activity targeting programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in several U.S. states, highlights the vulnerability of local water systems. While cybersecurity experts suspect an Iranian-affiliated campaign was behind some of these targeted attacks, Micro-Comm's breach is believed to be opportunistic and unrelated. The FBI confirmed it is investigating the incident.

Micro-Comm discovered the breach on July 31 and stated that the released files did not contain sensitive user credentials or data critical to its remote access capabilities. The company notified customers about the malware attack, assuring them that any sensitive information was encrypted and that the breach was separate from other reported water system hacks. Out of caution, Micro-Comm recommended customers change their passwords.