Cyber Attack on North Texas Municipal Water District
A couple of days ago it became known about a cyber attack on the municipal water district of North Texas (NTMWD) carried out by the hacker group “Daixin”. This incident occurred shortly after the attack on the water department of Alikvippa in Pennsylvania, believed to be the work of the Iranian group “Cyber Av3NGERS”.
The Daixin hackers claim to have blocked 300 to 400 district servers on November 11, as confirmed by an official announcement from NTMWD regarding the disruption of telephone communication published the next day. Interruptions, indicated by the red flag on the NTMWD website, are still ongoing.
The Daixin leak website states that the attackers gained access to 33,844 NTMWD files and have threatened to leak these data in the near future. However, Daixin representatives have stated that they did not disable NTMWD’s technical equipment or interrupt water supply.
NTMWD serves approximately 2 million residents in 10 districts of North Texas, providing essential water supply services, drainage, and waste disposal.
When asked about the potential halt of water supply, the response from Daixin members was ambiguous. They mentioned that they did not find any water supply management equipment in the compromised network, but if they had access to such equipment, they would likely use it. The attackers believe that if they completely halt the water supply, they can force NTMWD to pay a ransom in order to regain access.
Daixin claims that negotiations with NTMWD began on November 12, but ended without agreement on November 22 after NTMWD representatives ceased communication.
NTMWD representatives have reported