<p>This work proposes an improved event-triggered fuzzy control strategy for cyber-physical systems (CPSs) using the Hippopotamus Optimization Algorithm (HOA) under DoS attacks and actuator faults. First, an interval type-2 fuzzy switching model with the consideration of actuator faults and saturation in the physical layer is developed to approximate non-ideal uncertain CPSs. Second, a joint model composed of an improved dynamic event-triggered (DET) method and valid Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks is designed to simultaneously alleviate the network communication burden and tolerate DoS attacks at the network layer. Notably, the improved DET method introduces two dynamic threshold parameters to further regulate the communication resources of the CPSs. Meanwhile, an HOA-based parameter optimization strategy for the DET mechanism is proposed to balance system control performance and network communication burden. Thirdly, leveraging the Wirtinger inequality, sufficient conditions for a fuzzy improved DET controller are derived. Finally, experimental tests are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.</p>