Years of warnings about the digital vulnerabilities lurking inside basic utilities are colliding with a new reality: AI is making those weaknesses easier for hackers to exploit. AI is lowering the barrier for state-backed hackers looking to disrupt or manipulate water systems, power plants and other critical infrastructure. A recent wave of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure is raising new questions about the preparedness of U.S. water systems and a British power plant. The Telegraph reported that Iran-backed hackers broke into a U.K. power plant, prompting a four-day shutdown around the time a series of cyberattacks on U.S. water systems began.
U.S. officials warned last week that hackers were actively using an AI-generated exploitation script to target a device commonly found in critical infrastructure that has played a key role in the ongoing attacks on U.S. water systems. Markus Mueller, field CISO at critical infrastructure security firm Nozomi Networks, told Axios he has medium confidence that the U.S. and U.K. attacks are linked to the same threat actor.

Full report : A wave of cyberattacks against critical infrastructure raises questions about their preparedness.