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Officials in an east-central Minnesota city say a cyberattack temporarily knocked its municipal water system offline on Monday — and that several other communities around the state also were targeted.

 at about 9:30 a.m. Monday its water treatment plant was offline “for an unknown reason,” and that crews were troubleshooting the problem.

, the city said the outage “was a result of a malicious cyberattack of computerized operating systems by unknown actors.”

“This attack did not alter or cause any issue to the physical water plant or water quality or safety. Rather, the attackers shut down the operating controls, which shut down the well and water treatment plant,” the city reported.

City officials also said they were told “at least four other communities” were subject to the same type of cyberattack. 

The City of Braham statement did not identify those other communities, but it said the state of Minnesota was providing assistance “to mediate any vulnerabilities, as well as investigating the source” of the attack.

Later Monday, the city of South St. Paul 

“While the incident affected certain automated controls, established contingency procedures were immediately implemented, allowing Public Works staff to maintain normal water and wastewater operations,” the city reported. “Drinking water remains safe, water and wastewater services remain fully operational, and no action is required from residents.”

South St. Paul officials said they were working with state and federal agencies in response to the incident.

“Staff continue to monitor the system and are taking the necessary steps to restore normal automated operations while maintaining reliable service,” the city said in its news release.

In Braham, city officials had initially asked residents to limit water use, because of a limited supply in the city’s water tower. But later in the day, they said the system was back online and residents could return to normal water use. 

The city said the municipal water was being “filtered and treated as expected.”

Other local governments around the state have been targeted by cyberattacks in recent years, including the 

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Andrew Krueger

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The city of Braham said the temporary water system outage “was a result of a malicious cyberattack of computerized operating systems by unknown actors.” The city of South St. Paul said it also was targeted.

Officials in Minnesota cities say cyberattacks targeted water systems

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