WANA (Jun 12) – The cyber group Handala has claimed responsibility for a security breach targeting water infrastructure facilities across the state of California, framing the cyberattack as a direct retaliation against recent U.S. actions involving Iran.

 

According to a statement released by the group, the operation was executed in response to alleged U.S. operations targeting civilians and water infrastructure in Iran’s Minab and Sirik regions. Handala asserted that after U.S. actions compromised water resources in those areas, the collective launched a counter-offensive against critical American water networks.

 

Despite successfully penetrating the relevant systems, Handala stated that they intentionally refrained from disrupting municipal water supplies. The group emphasized that the intrusion was intended strictly as a “warning” to Washington.

 

Invoking the memory of the infamous Stuxnet cyberweapon, the hackers warned that any future actions directed against Iran would be met with reciprocal cyber retaliation against vital U.S. infrastructure.

 

To validate their claims, the hacking collective published a 5-gigabyte sample of exfiltrated data on their website as proof of concept (PoC).