Crime & Law UChicago Cybersecurity Expert on Water System Hacks, Critical Infrastructure Concerns What appeared to be innocent malfunctions in municipal water systems could actually be something more serious. At the end of July, several water systems from Minnesota to Georgia suddenly went offline. While officials restored them, cybersecurity experts now say the outages may have been caused by Iranian hackers, raising larger questions about the security of America’s critical resources. Jacob Braun, executive director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago and former acting principal cyber director under the Biden administration, joined “Chicago Tonight” to break down how hackers were able to access the country’s water infrastructure. WTTW News: What happened when these cities first realized something was wrong with their water systems? Jacob Braun: The cyber attack attacked a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), which is a device that helps control the IT system and its commands to the physical system — so the actual pumps and so on that make the water utility work. As you suggested, the assumption is that the Iranians were behind the attack. And we think this attack is not really about a specific water utility. It’s really trying to send a message to the administration and the American people about where we’re vulnerable. I think that what they’re trying to do is really show the administration that they can shut off the water to our military assets. They can shut off the water to what may be the key economic driver in the country right now, which is our AI data centers. Finally, in a country that’s deeply divided over the war already, they’re showing they can undermine public trust in the government’s ability to perform the most basic lifegiving services like making sure the water turns on. How did