Iranian hackers claim breach of California water utility

An Iranian-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on California Water Service, one of the largest investor-owned water utilities in the United States. The group, known as Handala, published a five-gigabyte sample of data it said was stolen from the utility's systems on June 11, 2026, and framed the intrusion as retaliation for recent U.S. military actions in Iran.

California Water Service, which serves approximately two million customers across 100 communities in California, stated that its investigation is ongoing but that preliminary findings show no evidence of a network compromise or operational disruptions to its water and wastewater systems. A company spokesperson said there were no known disruptions to the billing platform or water delivery.

According to cybersecurity analysts, the published data indicates the hackers accessed two separate systems: a customer billing database containing personally identifiable information and an internal platform called RTKBase. The RTKBase is an open-source GNSS base station used by field crews for precise GPS mapping and maintenance of water infrastructure. The data leak reportedly includes customer names,...