US agencies warn of AI-generated attacks on Siemens PLCs

U.S. federal agencies issued an urgent advisory on August 19, warning that threat actors are using artificial intelligence to generate exploit scripts targeting Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in a coordinated campaign against critical infrastructure. The joint advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency identifies the campaign as an active threat against sectors including water and wastewater, energy, manufacturing, chemical, agriculture, and potentially defense facilities nationwide.

The warning follows confirmed cyberattacks that forced multiple water utilities to abandon automated operations and switch to manual control. A coordinated attack on July 26 and 27 disrupted operations at more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota, prompting the state’s IT Services division to activate a statewide incident response. By early August, attacks had been confirmed at water systems across at least 12 states, including Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, and South Dakota. In one significant incident, the...