Iranian hackers are breaking into U.S. industrial systems, agencies warn

SecurityIranian hackers are breaking into U.S. industrial systems, agencies warnThe attacks are meant to cause disruption, according to federal agencies, but the specifics are still unclear.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Members of a crowd wave Iranian flags on April 1, in Tehran, Iran. Majid Saeedi / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 7, 2026, 4:40 PM EDTBy Kevin CollierIran’s hackers are actively breaking into industrial control systems in the U.S., multiple federal agencies warned Tuesday, in an ongoing attempt to disrupt American infrastructure.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Hackers are compromising internet-facing tools made by Rockwell Automation, a Milwaukee-based maker of industrial control systems, which has led to “disruptions across several U.S. critical infrastructure sectors,” the advisory says. It is unclear if any of the disruptions are significant.The hackers have targeted victims in government services, water and wastewater services and the energy sector, it says. The warning concerning domestic critical infrastructure threats is the first one of its kind released to the public since the U.S. war with Iran began.The advisory does not name which companies have been disrupted or how severe the effects of the hacks have been, but says they have resulted in “operational disruption and financial loss” for victims.It is jointly authored by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, FBI, NSA, Department of Energy, and U.S. Cyber Command. The agencies recommend taking vulnerable internet-connected controllers offline.It identifies the hackers as “Iran-affiliated advanced persistent threat (APT) actors.” APTs are a cybersecurity industry term used to refer to sophisticated or dogged hacker groups, and they usually represent a unit working for a country’s military or intelligence services.The hackers have been breaking into Rockwell’s Studio...