U.S. news media are reporting that the Obama administration will publicly blame Iranian hackers for a 2013 cyberattack against a small dam in New York state.
The Justice Department has prepared an indictment against the hackers and a public announcement could come as soon as next week, Reuters and CNN reported on March 10.
U.S. officials believe the hackers gained access only to some back-office systems, not the operational system of the Bowman Avenue Dam, a flood-control system 50 kilometers north of New York City.
The attack was not considered sophisticated, but "we obviously take seriously all such malicious activity in cyberspace," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
"We are going to continue to use all the tools at our disposal to prevent, deter, detect, counter, and mitigate that kind of activity."
The Obama administration has grown increasingly concerned about the threat of foreign states hacking U.S. infrastructure since it determined that a cyberattack was the cause of a December power outage in Ukraine that affected nearly a quarter million customers.