{"id":360314,"date":"2026-06-14T12:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/360314\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T12:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:49:11","slug":"iran-linked-hackers-claim-breach-of-california-water-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/360314\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran-linked hackers claim breach of California water systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/p>\n

Image of purported bill to a Chico CalWater customer that an Iranian-linked group claims to have hacked. The original image did not have identifying information blocked. SOURCE: Iranian PressTV<\/p>\n

Lois Henry<\/p>\n

SJV Water<\/p>\n

An alleged breach of several California water systems by an Iranian-linked hacker group did not compromise any water production or delivery systems, according California Water Service Company.<\/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 an email Friday from Yvonne Kingman, director of communications for CalWater, states.<\/p>\n

Kingman said the investigation is continuing and she didn\u2019t have further information in response to a follow up question about whether the hacker group, called Handala, had accessed other systems, such as CalWater\u2019s billing system.<\/p>\n

Handala stated Thursday that it had gained access to several systems, including in Bakersfield, Visalia and Chico and showed screenshots of what it said were residents\u2019 bills, according to several news sites. It claimed to have five gigabytes of data from the alleged breach on its website, according to Iranian news network Press TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement carried by Iran\u2019s state broadcaster, Handala said it could disrupt the water systems if it chose to but had refrained from doing so as a \u201cwarning\u201d to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The alleged hack was in retaliation for U.S. strikes that may have damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran near the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

A review by cyber experts, using Dataminr, an AI tool, shows \u201c\u2026that the group reached a GPS correction server and a customer billing database. Neither system controls water treatment or distribution, and Dataminr states that OT or ICS disruption is not confirmed in this incident,\u201d according to an article on the website Security<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SJV Water is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley, www.sjvwater.org. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Christopher Kirkpatrick<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Christopher Kirkpatrick is senior editor of The Fresno Bee and Vida en el Valle.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image of purported bill to a Chico CalWater customer that an Iranian-linked group claims to have hacked. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-360314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360314","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=360314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}