Cyberattack briefly shuts down Braham water plant, targets at least 4 other Minnesota communities

An investigation is underway to determine who is behind a cyberattack that briefly shut down a water plant in Braham, Minnesota, on Monday morning and hit at least four other communities, officials in the east-central city said.

The City of Braham said in a Facebook post at 9:34 a.m. Monday that its water plant was offline for an unknown reason. Just under two hours later, officials said the facility was back online and that the cause of the outage was a "malicious cyber-attack of computerized operating systems by unknown actors."

Braham officials said the attack shut down the "operating controls," which resulted in the shutdown of the well and water treatment plant. They added that it did not cause any physical issues to the facility, nor did it impact water quality or safety. 

"The City of Braham's Public works crews were able to quickly determine the issue and mediate the cause of the outage," city officials said in a news release.

The release went on to say that the city was informed that at least four other communities were attacked "with the same result."

The document didn't name the locations, though officials in South St. Paul, Minnesota, said Monday afternoon that they identified a cybersecurity incident involving "technology used to support portions of the City's water utility system."

South St. Paul officials said that while the incident impacted some automated controls, steps that were taken allowed Public Works staff to maintain normal water and wastewater operations.

"Drinking water remains safe, water and wastewater services remain fully operational, and no action is required from residents," the Twin Cities suburb said in a social media post. "The City is working with its technology partners and coordinating with state and federal agencies as part of the ongoing response process."

State personnel are also assisting the other impacted communities, according to Braham officials. 

Braham's city administrator is requesting that the city's "system vulnerability study" be evaluated to identify and mitigate any vulnerabilities or potential vulnerabilities exposed by the attack.