Iranian hackers claim to penetrate Tennessee city’s sewer bill system

August 09, 2019

A Tennessee city known mainly as a Civil War battlefield has seen the webpage of its water and sewer services hacked by a group claiming to be Iranian.

The city of Murfreesboro discovered August 3 that its bill payment website for the water and sewage department had been hacked. The city later said the damage was limited to the online portal page only and did not impact any billing accounts.

The compromised webpage featured a photo of the Iranian flag and the Guy Fawkes mask used by many hackers, including the group Anonymous.  A message below the photo says, “Hacked by Iranian Hackers” and “Hacked by Mamad Warning.”

“We are always closer to you,” the message said. “Your identity is known to us. Your information is for us 😉 take care.”

It isn’t obvious why anyone from Iran would want to get into the sewer bills in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a city of 140,000 people that was the site of a huge 1862 Civil War battle right in the middle of Tennessee.  But the claim of being Iranian doesn’t, of course, mean the hackers really were Iranian.