The dangers posed to US critical infrastructure are mounting once again, warranting calls for urgent action to help keep these systems protected. A large number of US agencies and its partners, including CISA, FBI, NSA, EPA, USDA, and FDA, as well as the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analytics Center (MS-ISAC), Canada’s Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), have released a joint advisory warning that pro-Russian hacktivists are targeting North American and European critical infrastructure, hacking into unsecure operational technology (OT) systems to disrupt operations. OT devices are used to monitor and control physical processes and activities in manufacturing, critical infrastructure, supply chain, and other industries that can lead to physical threats if compromised. The joint advisory notes that none of the reported intrusions they’ve identified have led to operational impacts, but as observed in the attack on the Texas water facility in April 2024, the intrusion into the facility’s OT systems caused pumps to exceed their normal operation parameters leading to one (1) tank overflowing. Based on the additional targeting of industrial control system in North America and Europe and the techniques the threat actors are using, the advisory offers mitigation recommendations for critical infrastructure organizations. The recommendations include hardening human machine interfaces (HMIs) and putting them behind firewalls, enabling multifactor authentication (MFA), applying the latest security updates and patches, changing default passwords, and increasing overall security postures of their IT environments to meet the rising threats. CTIX analysts recommend readers involved in overseeing critical infrastructure security take a further look at the advisory, linked below.