August 07, 2026
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The City of Cape May Water and Sewer Department and the Borough of Woodbine Water Department were targeted in a cyberattack against U.S. water systems on July 27, officials say.
Two water systems in Cape May County were targeted in a national cyberattack on July 27, officials said Thursday.
The City of Cape May Water and Sewer Department and the Borough of Woodbine Water Department immediately activated incident response protocols, and the threat was diminished shortly afterward, officials said. The attack does not appear to have impacted the drinking water or disrupted the water treatment, supply and monitoring systems. No personal information or customer data were compromised.
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Both systems are working with the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to identify the source of the hack. Some investigators reportedly suspect Iran may have been behind the attack, although they are also considering whether someone could be imitating Iranian tactics to influence U.S. policies as the Iran war develops.
Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky said the borough's water system is built so that outside attempts to gain access are resolved quickly.
"Bad actors were only successful in interrupting our phone communication to the water system," Pikolycky told NBC10. "This resulted in a few bad hours for the Borough of Woodbine Water Department personnel as they reactivated the system manually and consulted with the contractor, CISA, Homeland Security and the FBI. Once the information gathering was complete, the system was back online with no further issues."
Cape May Mayor Zachary Mullock said the city's water infrastructure is not automated, which helped limit what hackers could do. Many key systems were not online, so they could not gain any meaningful operational control.
The FBI issued a warning about the national cyberattack on July 30, but did not identify the water utilities that were affected. On Tuesday, New Jersey water systems were confirmed to have been targeted, but officials did not identify them until Thursday. Water systems in multiple states including Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia and Wisconsin appear to have been targeted, too. Water utilities have been urged to disconnect from the internet where they can.
