US authorities say Siemens controllers used for water and other infrastructure are being targeted by hackers — agencies claim threat actors use AI tools to generate exploitation scripts Attacks on these industrial controllers could lead to sabotage of critical infrastructure. Various U.S. agencies just released a warning claiming that Iranian hackers are targeting Siemens S7-series programmable logic controllers (PLCs). According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advisory, hackers are using publicly available information on these widely used devices to develop exploits that would enable remote access and control. They’re also using AI tools, allowing them to identify additional attack vectors and possibly adapt to any defensive measures operators may have taken to protect their systems. “The actors leverage Internet scanning services to find Internet-exposed PLCs running outdated software or that are otherwise poorly protected,” the agency said in its warning. “The U.S. critical infrastructure sectors most targeted by this threat activity include Critical Manufacturing, Energy, Water and Wastewater, Chemical, Food and Agriculture, and Commercial Facilities. This is not a theoretical risk — it is an active threat. Depending on the specific circumstances, exploitation of poorly protected PLCs could lead to disruption of critical industrial processes, safety incidents, downtime or equipment damage, compromise of sensitive data, compliance violations, and cascading impacts across interconnected systems.” The warning comes from multiple government agencies, not just CISA. The advisory was also co-authored by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), underscoring how serious this issue could become. Because of this, operators using Siemens S7 PLCs (and other PLCs operating critical infrastructure) are advised to keep their equipment updated with the latest applicable security patches, isolate it from the internet as much as possible, protect it with strong