Experts warn UK's basic infrastructure at risk after hackers target drinking water suppliers

Date:
Tue, 04 Nov 2025 10:53:45 +0000

Description:
Attacks have disrupted operations on five separate occasions, experts warn.

FULL STORY

New reports have revealed five cyberattacks have targeted British drinking water facilities since January 2024 - a record number in any two year period.

Reports of these incidents were obtained by The Record using Freedom of Information requests to the watchdog - the Drinking Water Inspectorate. The regulator is only required by NIS regulations to report incidents that
actually result in disruption - so the number of attempted attacks is likely
to be much higher.

Although these didnt directly affect the supply of safe water, they were successful in disrupting critical organizations - painting a disturbing
picture of the potential threat malicious hackers pose to our society.

Potential harm to human life

As political violence increasingly manifests through cyberattacks , critical infrastructure is targeted more than ever, but hackers arent all state
actors.

In fact, a ransomware attack targeted Southern Water in 2024, asking for over 3m as a payment for leaked data in a seemingly purely financially motivated attack - meaning organizations need to beware of attacks from all angles.

The Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity also recently warned hacktivists had
been discovered tampering with online systems that control water, energy, and agricultural facilities - disruption to any of which could be deadly, and a simultaneous attack could bring daily life to a halt across the country.

Make no mistake, any attack targeted at critical infrastructure is intended
to gain media attention, disrupt public services, potentially harm human
life, and should be taken seriously, says Jason Shea, principal advisor of
grid security at Optiv.

We often pay more attention to advanced nation-state actors and surrounding geological tensions, and we lose sight of the less sophisticated and opportunistic attacks. These should not be taken lightly.

Geopolitical instability threatens to expose vulnerabilities across the landscape, and small scale attacks like these are testing the waters (literally) to see just how well prepared the infrastructure is, and how much it could be disrupted in a large-scale attack.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/experts-warn-uks-basic-infrastructure-a t-risk-after-hackers-target-drinking-water-suppliers

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