March 24, 2016 - On Thursday, the Justice Department announced that it had indicted seven hackers associated with the Iranian government and charged them with cybercrimes. Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino applauded the indictments, and reiterated his calls for constant vigilance and more coordinated communication with the federal government.

"The indictments today are another stark reminder that there are people in the world who want to do us harm and that when it comes to protecting the public against those threats our vigilance must be constant," said Astorino. "While the Bowman Avenue Dam may seem inconsequential, the attempt to hack it was not. Any knowledge gained or vulnerabilities learned by terrorists can be applied in Westchester or anywhere in the world. From a different continent and with the click of a mouse, terrorists can wreak havoc on critical infrastructure and cause death and destruction. Preventing an attack can only be accomplished if we work together and share information."

Last December, Astorino demanded answers from Homeland Security about the cyber-security breach at the damn in Rye Brook, which county officials only learned about after reading about it in the Wall Street Journal. Although Homeland Security knew about the cyber-attack for two years, Westchester County did not have any information on the attack despite being on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, along with the FBI.

"Coordinated communication is one of our prime lines of defense against these types of terror threats. For Westchester County, which sits within the Counter Terrorism Zone, to find out about this threat in the newspaper is just not acceptable," said Astorino. "We have made our concerns clear to Homeland Security. We have been in discussions since then with the relevant agencies to improve coordination and communication and hopefully it will be greatly improved moving forward."

County Legislator David Gelfarb (R-Port Chester) who represents the district where the dam is located, also applauded the news of the indictments.

"It is good news that federal prosecutors have indicted the Iranian intelligence agents who sought to infiltrate, disable and damage critical local infrastructure. We must have a zero tolerance policy toward efforts by these spies to damage the homeland and jeopardize our lives and property," said Gelfarb. "It is imperative that Westchester County police have and continue to have a full time representative on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and that threats such as these be communicated to local first responders in a timely manner. We look forward to working with our federal, state and local counterparts in defending the homeland from these insidious threats."