With the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warning that hackers are targeting water entities of all sizes in the U.S. and reports surfacing that Iran has hacked into municipal water systems in seven states, New York state is releasing funds to help municipalities secure their drinking water and wastewater systems. Various systems in the Hudson Valley are due to receive the new funding, part of $9 million in grants awarded to 153 local government projects statewide through the Strengthening Essential Cybersecurity for Utilities and Resiliency Enhancements (SECURE) grant program. According to Gov. Kathy Hochul, the funding will support communities in their efforts to bolster their cybersecurity posture against increasingly sophisticated and dangerous cyber threats to drinking water and wastewater systems. “As we have seen with recent malicious cyberattacks on water systems across multiple states, these threats are real and escalating,” Hochul said. “These investments give local governments the tools they need to strengthen their defenses, safeguard essential services, and keep delivering safe, reliable water to New Yorkers.” SECURE grants and no-cost technical assistance from the Environmental Facilities Corporation will help local governments implement the new state standards including mandatory cybersecurity training for certified operators, cybersecurity incident reporting requirements and new standards to protect critical operations and sensitive information. The first recent public sign of the drinking water system cyberattacks came from Minnesota authorities, who said that hackers targeted about 30 water systems in that state. The “likely desired impact” of the hackers’ intrusion at the water facilities was “to cause loss of system pressure and subsequent potential contamination of water supply,” according to a memo distributed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and obtained by CNN. The hackers appear to be targeting systems connected to the internet through such devices as those that monitor water pressure, chemical dosing