An unauthorized intruder slipped into Itron Inc.’s internal systems on April 13, 2026. The Liberty Lake, Washington-based company, a key supplier of smart meters and grid management tech to utilities worldwide, disclosed the breach in an SEC Form 8-K filing last Friday. Operations didn’t skip a beat. But the incident underscores persistent vulnerabilities in the infrastructure powering homes and cities. Itron provides internet-connected devices tracking energy and water use for over 110 million locations across more than 100 countries. Think smart meters on your house, feeding data to power grids. Thousands of municipal customers rely on its gear. So when hackers breached parts of its IT environment, eyes turned to potential ripple effects on those networks. “On April 13, 2026, Itron, Inc. was notified that an unauthorized third party had gained access to certain of its systems,” the filing states verbatim ( SEC Form 8-K ). The firm wasted no time. It triggered its cybersecurity response plan.…