A cyberattack on a small dam in the New York City suburbs was a “shot across the bow” of the United States and should be met with tougher sanctions against Iran’s regime, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Friday.
In 2013, hackers accessed the control system at the Bowman Avenue Dam, a small flood-control structure. The intrusion prompted a federal investigation.
“Now it looks clear that the Iranians did it,” Schumer said. “What were they doing? They were sending a shot across our bow. They were saying that we can damage, seriously damage, our critical infrastructure and put the lives and property of people at risk.”
CNN first reported on Thursday that the Obama administration is preparing to publicly attribute the cyber-attack to Iranian hackers. It quoted U.S. officials familiar with the investigation.
The U.S. Justice Department has prepared an indictment against people thought to be behind the attack, officials told CNN. An announcement could come in the next week.
The intrusion at the Bowman Avenue Dam, around 30 miles north of New York City in suburban Rye Brook, New York, isn’t considered sophisticated — the hackers managed only to get access to some back office systems, not the operational systems of the dam, U.S. officials say. U.S. investigators quickly determined the attack was carried out by hackers working for the Iranian regime.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines on Thursday bashed the Obama administration for taking years to blame Iran’s regime for the 2013 cyber-attack.
“It is downright shameful that it has taken President Obama three years to denounce Iran for a malicious cybersecurity attack on our country while at the same time sitting at a negotiating table with them,” Daines said in a statement, The Hill reported.