Cyberattack blamed for Braham water plant issues; system back online
A water plant malfunction in Braham was caused by a cyberattack, the city of Braham said Monday afternoon.
The city announced Monday morning that its water plant was offline “for an unknown reason.” A few hours later, the city said the system was back online and confirmed the issue wasn’t a fluke.
“Crews identified that the water plant outage was a result of a malicious cyber-attack of computerized operating systems by unknown actors,” the city said in a statement.
The city added that the attack didn’t impact water or plant safety, but shut down the operating controls at the plant, which caused the well and plant to go offline.
In the meantime, Braham used water in its water tower to serve residents. However, the city had asked residents to conserve water until the issue was fixed. Because the issue has been resolved, residents can return to normal water use.
Braham also says the attack appears to have targeted other communities, and the state is aware and helping impacted communities while the source is being investigated.
In light of the attack, the city administrator is asking for Braham’s vulnerability study to be reevaluated to identify any vulnerabilities as a result of the attack.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to the state but hasn’t yet heard back.
MORE: Latest forecast from Minnesota’s Weather Authority
The cyberattack comes amid the latest heat wave, which will again have temperatures in the mid-90s on Monday, with the “feels like” temp around 100 degrees.
Minnesota’s Weather Authority says the extreme heat will start to fade throughout the week, but it will still be hot for at least the next few days.
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