Water systems in Minnesota, Michigan and five unidentified states were targeted in a series of cyberattacks that did not contaminate drinking supplies but prompted federal scrutiny and a political dispute between President Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Cyberattacks have targeted water systems in at least seven states, including Minnesota and Michigan, as federal and state officials investigate whether Iran may be responsible for an unprecedented series of intrusions against critical infrastructure.
None of the affected systems had their water supplies altered in a way that made them unsafe to drink as of Saturday, according to reports cited by the Daily Caller News Foundation and The New York Times.
Anonymous officials said Iran is considered the most likely perpetrator, although investigators have not reached a final conclusion or obtained definitive forensic proof. The United States is currently at war with Iran, which has previously targeted similar water systems.
Minnesota was initially the only state publicly identified as a target. Michigan was confirmed the following day, while the five other states believed to have been affected had not been named as of Saturday afternoon.
President Donald Trump disputed the suggestion that Iran was behind the attacks and instead blamed Minnesota’s leadership during a Friday Cabinet meeting at Camp David.
“I blame it on Minnesota because they are grossly incompetent,” Trump said, according to Politico.
Trump also called Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “corrupt.”
“Iran has bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota,” Trump said. “I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.”
Walz rejected Trump’s remarks in a Friday post on X, saying the president “knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too.”
“This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran,” Walz added.
An AP-NORC survey conducted July 23-27 found that 64% of American adults believed the Trump administration’s war with Iran was not “worth fighting.” That view was shared by 68% of independents and 37% of Republicans. Eighteen U.S. service members had been killed in the conflict as of Saturday afternoon.
Officials familiar with the cyber investigation said Saturday that Iran remained the leading suspect despite the lack of conclusive evidence. They cited the country’s previous operations against water infrastructure as one factor supporting that assessment.
The mayor of a small Minnesota city affected by the attacks said he was receiving limited information from state officials.
He said he was “getting bits and pieces of information from the state of Minnesota” and claimed the FBI “are pretty sure it’s Iranian actors,” although federal officials were reluctant to make that conclusion publicly.
“The FBI is aware of recent public reporting around Water and Wastewater (WWS) sectors,” an FBI spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The FBI and our interagency partners are fully engaged to protect critical infrastructure and we remain well-equipped to protect against cyber threats of all varieties.”
A Department of War spokesperson told the outlet that the Pentagon had no additional information to provide.
Neither Walz’s office nor the office of Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer immediately responded to requests for comment.
The dispute over the attacks comes amid continued political scrutiny of Walz, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in the 2024 election. He and presidential nominee Kamala Harris lost to Trump and his running mate, now-Vice President JD Vance.
Walz initially planned to seek a third term in November 2025 but withdrew from the race in January 2026 as Minnesota faced continued attention over a large fraud scandal tied largely to members of the Somali community in the Twin Cities region.
Vance referred Walz to the Justice Department’s Fraud Division in June for a criminal investigation.
In a post on X, Vance wrote that if Walz and his administration “facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated whistleblowers, they must face justice.”
The investigation into the water-system attacks remained active Saturday, with federal officials working to determine who carried them out, how the targeted systems were breached and whether additional states or utilities may have been affected.
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