Over 4,400 Rockwell PLCs Exposed Online, 22 Found in Water Attack Cities

2026-08-07

Forescout identified over 4,400 internet-facing Rockwell PLCs worldwide, including 22 in recently attacked US water utility cities that were compromised via open Ethernet/IP port 44818 rather than complex exploits, prompting urgent calls for defenders to isolate controllers behind VPNs and utilize Rockwell advisory SD1790 to recover attacker-locked systems.