{"id":359658,"date":"2026-06-13T20:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359658\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T20:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:49:11","slug":"california-water-systems-hit-by-iranian-hackers-in-terrifying-threat-to-drinking-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359658\/","title":{"rendered":"California water systems hit by Iranian hackers in terrifying threat to drinking supply"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Iranian hacker group is claiming it infiltrated water systems<\/a> serving several California cities in an apparent act of retaliation against the United States \u2014 though cybersecurity experts are casting doubt on whether the hackers can actually do any damage.<\/p>\n

The group, known as Handala, alleged Thursday that it breached systems tied to Bakersfield, Visalia and Chico, posting screenshots that appeared to show residents\u2019 water bills. The hackers said the cyberattack was payback after US forces struck two reservoirs in Iran.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An Iranian hacker group shared images of utility bills. SJV WATER<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly two days ago, [Trump] destroyed the water sources<\/a> of the oppressed people of Sirik with multi-million-dollar rockets, inflicting forced thirst and suffering in 50-degree heat,\u201d Handala said in a statement<\/a> to Iranian news outlets. \u201cToday, retribution has reached the heart of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iranian state media reported that the US strikes hit water storage facilities<\/a>, while a local official said more than 20,000 people lost access to water.<\/p>\n

Despite the alarming claims, Handala said it would not shut off water service in California, describing the breach as a warning to President Donald Trump. The group also claimed to possess 5 gigabytes of data allegedly stolen during the intrusion.<\/p>\n

California Water Service said it found no evidence that its systems were compromised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have conducted a preliminary scan of our internal IT and OT networks and have no signs of any compromise within our IT, water production, and delivery systems at this time,\u201d a spokesperson for CalWater told news site SJV Water. <\/a><\/p>\n

An investigation is still underway, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"Pools<\/p>\n

Pools of water are visible at the East Bay Municipal Utility District Wastewater Treatment Plant. California\u2019s water systems are a prime target. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Security experts said that there is no evidence or indication Handala actually has the capability to shut off water supplies in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cHandala has a record of overstating its capabilities. The boast about choosing to spare the water supply reads as the psychological operation itself,\u201d said Sean Malone,<\/a> chief information security officer at BeyondTrust.<\/p>\n

Still, experts warned that water utilities remain attractive targets for foreign adversaries and cybercriminals.<\/p>\n

\"America<\/p>\n

America has been in a months-long war with Iran. AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi<\/p>\n

The allegations are an escalation of America\u2019s ongoing war with Iran<\/a>. President Trump claimed, however, that the two sides are \u201cscheduled\u201d to sign a peace deal Sunday that forbids Tehran from possessing nukes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future. Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly. If it doesn\u2019t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Iranian hacker group is claiming it infiltrated water systems serving several California cities in an apparent act…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,50347,146369,19378,146368,1519,86739,102269,130498,114222],"class_list":["post-359658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-water-service","tag-handala","tag-iran","tag-iranian-news","tag-trump","tag-water-bills","tag-water-service","tag-water-sources","tag-water-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}