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https://hacknotice.com/2020/05/14/uk-electricity-middleman-hit-by-cyber-attack/

\nHackNotice is a service that notices trends and patterns in publically available data so as to identify possible data breaches, leaks, hacks, and other data incidents on behalf of our clients. HackNotice monitors data streams related to breaches, leaks, and hacks and UK electricity middleman hit by cyber-attack was reported by one of those streams. HackNotice may also have the breach date, hack date, the hacker responsible, the hacked industry, the hacked location, and any other parts of the hack, breach, or leak that HackNotice can report on for the consumers of our product.\nIf you are a user of UK electricity middleman hit by cyber-attack their products, services, websites, or applications and you were a client of HackNotice, monitoring for UK electricity middleman hit by cyber-attack you may have been alerted to this report about UK electricity middleman hit by cyber-attack . HackNotice is a service that provides data, information, and monitoring that helps our clients recover from and remediate data breaches, hacks, and leaks of their personal information. HackNotice provides a service that helps our clients know what to do about a hack, breach, or leak of their information.\nIf UK electricity middleman hit by cyber-attack had a breach of consumer data or a data leak, then there may be additional actions that our clients should take to protect their digital identity. Data breaches, hacks, and leaks often leading to and do indistinguishability theft, account take overs, ransomware, spyware, extortion, and malware. account takeovers are often caused by credential reuse, word reuse, easily guessed passwords, and are facilitated by the sharing of billions of credentials and other customer information through data leaks, as the direct result of data breaches and hacks.\nHackNotice monitors trends in publically available data that indicates tens of thousands of data breaches each year, along with billions of records from data leaks each year. On behalf of our clients, HackNotice works to monitor for hacks that lead-in to lower client security and digital identities that have been exposed and should be considered vulnerable to attack. HackNotice workings with clients to identify the extent that digital identities make been exposed and provides remediation suggestions for how to handle each type of exposure.\nHackNotice monitors the hacker community, which is a network of individuals that apportion data breaches, hacks, leaks, malware, spyware, ransomware, and many other tools that are often used for financial fraud, account take overs, and further breaches and hacks. HackNotice monitors the hacker community specifically for breaches, hacks, and data leaks that ache consumers. HackNotice applies industry specific knowledge and advanced security practices to monitor for trends that indicate breaches, hacks, and exposed digital identities.\nHackNotice also enables clients to portion cut notices with their friend, family, and collogues to assist increase consciousness around alleged hacks, breaches, or data leaks. HackNotice works to provide clients with sharable reports to help increase the surety of our clients personal network. The security of the people that our clients interact with directly impacts the rase of surety of our clients. Increased exposure to accounts that have been taken over by hackers leads to further account take overs through phishing, malware, and other impound techniques.\nIf you found this hack note to be helpful, then you may be interested in reading some additional hack notices such as:\nate-sponsored actors. professional associations for IT asset managers work aggressively with IT profesumably 2014 and 2015), according to a Ponemon study. In health care, more than 25 mils $6.2 billion in the last two years (presumably 2014 and 2015), according to a Ponemon study.\nSanta Rosa & Rohnert Park Oral Surgery\nHackers sell stolen user data from HomeChef, ChatBooks, and Chronicle – BleepingComputer\nCelebrity Data Stolen in Ransomware Attack on NYC Law Firm – Infosecurity Magazine\n

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/how-to-keep-evs-from-taking-down-the-electrical-grid

Is the US electrical grid — a 70-year-old behemoth — equipped to handle the load of nearly 607,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads? As a security guy working in critical national infrastructure (CNI), I wonder. I know the threats facing the US power grid and see it struggling against an already strained capacity. So let's "strength test" this load, see if the grid can handle all those EVs, and discuss what can be done if not. As the one CNI sector that singlehandedly underpins nearly all the others, it matters. According to BloombergNEF, there will be nearly 1 million new EVs per month — or one about every three seconds. In the UK, 17% plan to buy an electric vehicle in the next year and nearly 70% would do so if money were no object. It's no surprise, therefore, that BloombergNEF predicts more than 26 million EVs on the road by the end of 2026. An insurance consultancy estimates there will be roughly 4 million in California alone by 2030, and a report by BloombergNEF predicts that by 2040, nearly 60% of global passenger vehicle sales will be electric. From a purely emissions-based standpoint, it's almost too good to be true. But what are the consequences?Too Big for the GridThe grid also faces the challenge of supporting a fast-growing fleet of EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) that may overextend its current capacity.The current grid is something of a marvel, made up of 9,200 generating units, 600,000 miles of transmission lines, and more than 1 million megawatts of generating capacity. However, it was built when the current electrical needs of a household were a few lightbulbs and a toaster back in the '60s. Now, think about an average Thursday night — your kids are home, there are TVs going in every room, you're running a load of wash, nobody remembered to turn the lights off in the bathroom (of course), someone's gaming, someone's streaming, someone's microwaving something, your toddler is talking to Alexa, and you're charging your Tesla. Now add 26 million more Teslas and you see the problem.Plus, the current grid is built to give, not receive, energy. This becomes an issue with new sustainable sources of energy putting energy back into the system — like wind turbines, solar panels, and (yes) electric vehicles. We're forcing the current grid far beyond its intended use; to do any more, some suggest switching to a smart grid, which unlike the current infrastructure can give and receive power, and its capacity will be much larger than what we have now. Large loads — like EV charging stations, heating and cooling systems, and football stadiums — can crash the grid, bringing the kind of instability we're trying to avoid and generally being bad for business.Adopting a transactive method like the above can help offset the overall impact of electric vehicles on the power grid and keep things running smoothly. If done right, it will be more energy-efficient, able to load balance, and more stable. If we're to face a future where nearly 60% of all cars will require a charging station, a new grid, or focused improvements to the one we have, it's not only nice but needed.Securing the Grid Against EVsBesides overload, the biggest challenge EVs bring to the grid is security. They're huge Internet of Things devices with wheels, and the liability couldn't be higher. As of now, the IoT still represents a not-so-distant past where technology would fly off the line with minimal (if any) security controls. Yes, there are laws now, but with cloud connectivity, remote access, and various app integrations that may or may not have the same standards of security, risks are still around. As it stands, Bluetooth hacks can unlock car doors and charging stations are being held for ransom.And according to Yury Dvorkin, an electrical and computer engineering expert at New York University, charging stations can be entry points for cyberattacks directed at the American energy grid. All it takes is one weak point in the giant, interconnected network of an electric vehicle and soon a hacker can have access to the US energy supply.As Lear Corp.'s Andre Weimerskirch has pointed out, "An electric vehicle has far more hardware chips and software components than an internal combustion engine. More complexity means we need to be more careful around security in general."My suggestion to energy providers would be to not wait — shore up your cybersecurity posture against a time when less-than-secure EVs hit the market. I imagine it will be like a second IoT wave (quite literally): hastily added devices released with only secondary thought to security and the onus falling primarily on the user. If you're going to allow EVs — and all the connectivity, technology, and vulnerabilities they bring — anywhere near your power utility, learn the risks and build your cybersecurity strategy around government standards for the energy industry.

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/department-of-energy-confirms-data-breach

Online attackers successfully penetrated the Department of Energy (DOE) network in the middle of January and obtained copies of personally identifiable information (PII) pertaining to several hundred of the agency's employees and contractors.The agency first detailed the "cybersecurity incident," which affected the network at the agency's headquarters, in a memo circulated to all employees Friday. "We believe several hundred DOE employees' and contractors' PII may have been affected. As individual affected employees are identified, they will be notified and offered assistance on steps they can take to protect themselves from potential identity theft," according to the memo.The DOE has launched a full-scale investigation into the breach, involving its Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center, or JC3, which helps the agency track and report on all attacks launched against the agency, as well as the DOE's Office of Health, Safety and Security and Inspector General's office, together with one or more federal law enforcement agencies.So far, the memo noted, "based on the findings of this investigation, no classified data was compromised."[ For more on military agencies' security worries, see Uncertain State Of Cyber War. ]According to Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, the DOE was subjected to a "long-term, intensive campaign" designed to compromise both its headquarters systems, as well as the systems used by its labs, which is where the majority of the agency's most sensitive work takes place. "The first time we saw hard evidence was in 2002 in attacks against Los Alamos," he said via email, referring to the agency's Los Alamos National Laboratory.The DOE promised to release more details about this breach as they become known, and said that "once the full nature and extent of this incident is known, the Department will implement a full remediation plan," as part of what it said would be "an aggressive effort to reduce the likelihood of these events occurring again.""These efforts include leveraging the combined expertise and capabilities of the Department's Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center to address this incident, increasing monitoring across all of the Department's networks and deploying specialized defense tools to protect sensitive assets," according to the memo.A DOE official, reached by phone, shared a copy of the memo that had been distributed to employees, but said the agency had no further comment on the breach or the investigation, beyond what was already detailed in the memo.Interestingly, the DOE memo urged all employees "to help minimize impacts and reduce any potential risks" by encrypting all files and emails that contained PII, "including files stored on hard drives or on the shared network." That request suggests that the agency has yet to implement or mandate the use of full-disk encryption tools for all employees and contractors."DOE is as good or better than any civilian agency on encryption and sadly they are not very far along at all," said Paller.Why might attackers have targeted PII for agency employees and contractors? One obvious answer would be to help the attackers design better social engineering attacks, and in particular spear-phishing attacks, of the type that successfully compromised security company RSA in 2011. Such attacks use personalized emails to trick users into opening malicious attachments, which, if not then blocked by information security defenses, can allow attackers to establish a virtual beachhead in the targeted network, and then expand their attack from there to find and steal sensitive data from other systems.Despite that threat, could this DOE breach have upsides? "The thing that is most interesting to me is the difference between this attack response and nearly every other federal response," said Paller. "Here the top management and the CIO are actively seeking to understand it with a full commitment to fixing the underlying patterns that enabled the attack (that is very rare). The only other government agencies I know [of] that have demonstrated this type of leadership are in Australia."As a result, the DOE breach may now spur more U.S. federal agencies to improve their cybersecurity posture. "I am really sorry this happened, but it may be catalytic for more rapid improvement of cybersecurity in the U.S.," said Paller. "Given the talent available in the labs, I expect DOE will be an important agent of valuable improvement for the government and critical infrastructure in the U.S."

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.askcybersecurity.com/cyber-security-news-update-11-09-2018/

A recent report shows that there are 300,000+ job listings for cybersecurity professionals in addition to the 700,000+ that are already employed. Industry projections expect for there to be potentially millions of unfilled positions in the coming years as demand rapidly outstrips supply. The prevalence of cyber regulations such as GDPR, China’s CSL, and new laws in Canada, India, and the Philippines have placed increased pressure on companies with a global reach. Unfortunately for global companies, the various regulations don’t have enough in common with each other for there to be a universal solution, and even if the texts of the laws were the same the different cultures found in each country would force companies to adopt region specific implementation of the laws.The other issue with a lower number of workers to the number of jobs is that it is difficult for a company to poach workers or incentivize potential employees as easily as it would be if there were more potential hires. Cybersecurity personnel are necessary for the healthy operation of any company but with rising costs and the difficulties in hiring them, companies may decide to take risks with unqualified employees or eschewing industry best practices altogether.Source: Data Greater Demand for Cybersecurity Professionals by US EmployersA study of online consumers found that 49% felt that their habits made them vulnerable to attack or exploitation and that over half of them reused passwords across their accounts. This trend extends beyond the electronic realm, where nearly 20% of respondents said that they felt there was a risk of physical theft but less than a third of those surveyed reported that they shredded or destroyed their sensitive documents. The same consumers reported that while they, in general, failed to take the necessary precautionary steps to protect their information they would stop doing business with a company that had a data breach.This places pressure on companies that are required to protect their customer’s data while those same customers more than likely do not take actions that shield themselves from risk. Almost 40% of consumers had been the victim of identity theft in the past, which may explain the same view of expecting companies not to make mistakes that expose the consumer to risks. Additionally, a large number of consumers reported that they didn’t know how to determine if they had been the victim of identity theft and that most relied on external companies to inform them of suspicious activities.Three-quarters of respondents felt that they could successfully identify a phishing email or phone call, with the lowest rate of confidence in respondents who identified themselves as Baby Boomers. However, Baby Boomers reported more preparedness and awareness of physical risks to security, and they reportedly rarely leave sensitive or critical information laying around unlike younger generations. The security gap may have more to do with the fact that different generations have different views as to what is “dangerous.” The best way to combat this is to integrate the knowledge that each generation has and train until the deficiencies are removed or minimized.Source: U.S. Consumers’ Security Habits Make Them Vulnerable to Fraud

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.intelligentciso.com/2023/02/13/energy-providers-urged-to-power-up-security-solutions-against-emerging-threats/

\n \n \t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\nAntoine Harb, Team Leader, Middle East, Kingston Technology, says energy companies have never been more vulnerable to cyberattack.\n\n\n\nThe energy sector has emerged as a primary target for cybercriminals, its Intellectual Property (IP) and critical data have never been more vulnerable – while rising prices and geopolitical motives are other factors behind frequent attacks.\n\n\n\nAccording to a recent IBM report, the average cost of data breaches for critical infrastructure organisations \xe2\x80\x93 including those in the energy sector \xe2\x80\x93 is estimated to be US$4.82 million globally, with 28% having experienced a destructive or ransomware attack.\n\n\n\nIn recent months, nations across the region have been proactive in their efforts to ensure energy sector resilience and cyberattack preparedness. The Abu Dhabi Department of Energy (DOE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cybersecurity Council to enhance UAE energy sector security in October 2022.\n\n\n\nKSA hosted the Global Cybersecurity Forum the following month, highlighting widespread energy sector vulnerabilities and the need for international collaboration to permanently address long-standing and evolving frailties.\n\n\n\nWith IP and critical data protection a non-negotiable necessity for energy companies, Kingston Technology maintains that encrypted threat protection solutions can help bridge security gaps, mitigate risks and complement organisation\xe2\x80\x99s security strategies, providing a robust surface of protection through an easy-to-integrate encryption process.\n\n\n\nBy carrying out a comprehensive IT security assessment across their entire device portfolio, energy providers can verify their current security status. Should they be categorized as \xe2\x80\x98high risk\xe2\x80\x99, they can pursue corrective action, establishing policies and deploying security solutions as part of a revised endpoint device management strategy.\n\n\n\nEnergy companies must be supported in their IP and data security endeavors and acquire solutions to accommodate their off-site teams. Encrypted devices and USB drives are viable, proven solutions for boosting the required level of security. Backed with unique customer Product IDs, they are manufactured to be compatible solely with a company\xe2\x80\x99s unique end-point management software, offering reliable protection and a simple, secure way to preserve confidential energy-related information.\n\n\n\nHybrid working models adopted by many energy providers across MENA are susceptible to cyber infringements. While office-based personnel connected to network servers often use SharePoint or similar cloud-based sharing tools to save and share data, approximately 40% of workforces in off-site, field-based jobs require access to data outside the internal Wi-Fi network.\n\n\n\nEasy-to-use encrypted portable devices such as USB drives and external SSDs are therefore essential for preventing potential breaches, with solutions available that enable companies to manage such devices through their own endpoint management software. Encryption features ensure unauthorised devices cannot infiltrate an organisation\xe2\x80\x99s network, thereby boosting security and eliminating potential risks from the equation. A simple yet effective approach is to whitelist USB storage devices by utilising their respective Vendor Identifier (VID) and Product Identifier (PID) values.\n\n\n\nWith complete control over what devices and drives can be used within their organisational framework, as well as newfound audit and IP and data protection capabilities, energy providers can also be assured of their compliance with regulatory standards – which is also essential given the costs of data breaches.\nClick below to share this article\nFacebook \nTwitter \nLinkedIn\nEmail\nWhatsApp\n\n\t\t\t

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.cioandleader.com/power-utilities-now-more-prone-to-cyberattacks-amid-covid-19-pandemic-study/

Power utilities have become more prone to cyberattacks amid the COVID-19 pandemic as attackers have strived to benefit from the rush to remote systems and undermanned facilities. Utilities need to comprehend the new cyber risks involved with home-based work such as social engineering attacks and less reliable internet connections in order to accordingly set up baseline defenses and limit the consequences of cyberattacks, says GlobalData?s latest report, titled Thematic Research: Cybersecurity in Power. The study reveals that utilities? investment in cybersecurity ? split across technology, services, and internal skills development ? will only accelerate as they attempt to address challenges brought about by cyberattacks. Sneha Susan Elias, Senior Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: ?Utilities? existing systems are becoming increasingly connected through sensors and networks, and, due to their dispersed nature, are even more difficult to control. This potentially provides an opportunity for attackers to target the grid ? similar to the attack in Ukraine in December 2015 where hackers attacked three power distribution companies in the country, temporarily disrupting the electricity supply. ?As utility infrastructures become more interconnected, smart and decentralized, a centralized approach to secure them is difficult, and will become increasingly untenable. Central monitoring and oversight is essential but not sufficient, as a central system cannot react quickly enough to threats ? especially as control becomes fragmented across numerous systems such as microgrids. As a result, there will be a rising burden on edge elements and local systems to be resilient to cyberattacks, while also having the flexibility to support the resilience of the wider energy system in the case of a cyberattack on the electricity grid.? Power grids are the main target point for hackers and cyberattacks. Electricity grids depend on industrial control systems (ICS) to provide essential services. If these systems are at risk of a cyberattack, that can pave the way for serious, catastrophic events. However, the growth in cyberwarfare and the rapid proliferation of smart and connected grid components means that investment in cybersecurity will remain a top priority for utility IT departments. As a grid becomes smarter, it also becomes more vulnerable to attack, which can compromise critical infrastructure systems and disclose private user information. Susan Elias continues: ?Utilities need to develop a unified method for security that incorporates both physical and digital security, as well as covers the complete organization. Utilities should adopt cybersecurity measures that can correlate threats across transmission system operator (TSO) systems, industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) systems. This is where the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and behavioral analytics, along with ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT) data comes into play, providing support for the emergence of such solutions.? An ongoing area of development will be AI analysis of behavioral biometric data. Sophisticated machine learning algorithms can build up a profile of a user?s typical behavior, identify unusual patterns of activity, and highlight potential threats in real-time before they have a chance to materialize. By automatically detecting suspicious data, the whole security process becomes more efficient, preventing the need for a painstaking manual review of log data. IoT, if it moves beyond point applications to encompass analytics and a holistic view of utilities? infrastructure, could enhance aspects of security by helping manage infrastructure more effectively and monitor unusual patterns. Susan Elias adds: ?The integration of AI with IoT will aid power utilities and security personnel in decreasing false alerts obtained from these systems, and lead to enhanced efficiency of the security teams.?

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.cloudsek.com/threatintelligence/cyber-attacks-on-energy-sector-targeting-us-middle-east-south-america

\nCloudSEK researchers have analyzed data gathered by XVigil to unearth the scale and scope of cyber threats targeting oil and energy companies across the world.\nThe FBI recently released an official advisory, warning against the ongoing activity of Russian state-sponsored threat actors against the global energy sector.\n\n<\nKey Findings\n\nA majority of the energy companies targeted by cyber-attacks are based in Europe, South/Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.\nThe US was the most targeted country, followed by Brazil and France.\nThere was only one post on the dark web regarding an energy company in Russia, despite the fact that Russia is a major player in the global energy sector. And oil and gas accounts for 45% of its federal budget revenue.\nThere is a possibility that cyber attacks on energy companies were perpetrated by the Russian actors, given that the impacted regions are Russia\xe2\x80\x99s biggest competitors in the energy industry.\n\n \nAnalysis and Attribution\n\nXVigil recorded over 120 posts in 2021 and 2022 (till March), on cybercrime forums, related to the global energy sector.\nThese posts primarily advertise accesses and databases belonging to companies involved in the energy, oil, gas, power, and utility sectors.\n\nType of data posted on underground forums in posts related to the Oil & Energy sector\n\nIt is worth noting that the majority of the companies targeted are based in Europe, South/Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East, with only one post regarding an energy company in Russia, despite the fact that oil and gas accounts for 45% of Russia\xe2\x80\x99s federal budget revenue.\n\n[caption id="attachment_19276" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Map graph depicting the region-wise number of recorded cyberattacks targeting the Oil & Energy sector[/caption]\n \n\nRussia plays a prominent role in the global energy market. It is one of the top three crude producers in the world, competing with Saudi Arabia and the United States for first place.\nOur analysis shows that the US was the most targeted country, followed by Brazil and France.\n\nFBI Warning Against Russian Cyber Actors Targeting The Global Energy Sector\n\nThe US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently released an official warning against state-sponsored Russian cyber actors targeting the global energy sector.\nThe advisory highlighted the deployment of TRITON malware, which was seen targeting a Middle East-based petrochemical plant\xe2\x80\x99s safety instrumented system in 2017.\nTRITON was developed by the Russian Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (TsNIIKhM) which continues to conduct activities targeting the global energy sector. \nThis warning was issued in light of the US indictment of a Russian national and a TsNIIkhM employee who were both involved in the attack on Schneider Electric.\n\nCyber Attack Against Schneider Electric\n\nOn 24 March 2022, TRITON malware launched an attack against Schneider Electric Triconex safety instrumented system (SIS). This module is responsible for initiating safe shutdown procedures in the case of an emergency.\nBy changing in-memory firmware to incorporate new programming, the TRITON virus attacks Triconex Tricon safety controllers, potentially causing facility damage, system outage, and even death if the SIS fails to perform safe shutdown procedures.\nSchneider Electric patched the vulnerability (with the Tricon model 3008 v10.0-10.4), when version 11.3 of the Tricon controller was released in June 2018. Nevertheless, older versions of the controller are still in use and vulnerable to similar attacks.\n\nProminent Threat Actors\n\nOf the energy sector threats identified by XVigil, 5 major threat actors were responsible for ~20% of the threats.\nAmong the 5 threat actors, 3 actors who go by the handles \xe2\x80\x9cmont4na\xe2\x80\x9d, \xe2\x80\x9cbabam\xe2\x80\x9d, and \xe2\x80\x9cKristina\xe2\x80\x9d, were responsible for more data leaks and accesses than any other threat actor.\n\n \n[caption id="attachment_19277" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Top 5 threat actors targeting the Oil & Energy sector[/caption]\nmont4na\n\nThe actor\xe2\x80\x99s skillset\xe2\x80\x99s lies in exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities primarily on login panels. Previously, mont4na was actively selling vulnerabilities and asking buyers to fetch the database. But over time, his activities include posting login accesses and databases in some cases. While his targets are spread over the globe, he has only targeted reputed companies.\nThe actor was inactive for a span of almost 10 months until late November 2021. However, post that, there have been more than fifty posts. The actor also deletes his advertisement once the vulnerability or the access is sold.\n\nbabam\n\nBabam is an Initial Access Broker (IAB) on a Russian cybercrime forum, active in the auction section of the forum.\nThe actor specializes in selling different types of accesses (including Citrix, RDP, RDWeb, VPN) from across the world.\nThe actor\'s history, and the types of accesses advertised, indicate that the actor generally extracts credentials from the logs of info stealer malware or bots.\nThe actor had a high reputation on the forum, but due to payment related issues with some buyers, they were banned from the forum on 19 October 2021.\n\nKristina\n\nKristina is a handle used by a threat group that was previously known as Kelvin Security team.\nThe group uses targeted fuzzing and exploits common vulnerabilities to target victims. Being highly skilled in use of tools and having wide knowledge of various exploits, they share their list of tools and payloads for free.\nThey typically target victims with common underlying technologies or infrastructure at any given time.\nThe group doesn\xe2\x80\x99t shy away from attention and publicly shared information such as new exploits, targets, and databases on cybercrime forums and communication channels such as Telegram.\nRecently, they started their own data leak websites where other threat actors can come and share databases.\n\nOverview of the TRITON Malware\n\nThe TRITON malware is known for targeting Safety Instrumented Systems [SIS] to make faults in the hardware leading to damage and eventually failure of the safety system in OT networks.\nIn the past the malware has attacked Schneider Electric Triconex MP3008 main processor modules running the firmware versions 10.0-10.4.\nTRITON is not a generic malware that targets IT. Rather, it is a specially designed malware that is intended to run on a very specific SIS hardware of the attacker\'s choice.\nThe malware is capable of exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in device firmware to perform privilege escalation in order to complete specific tasks.\nThe TRITON is human-operated malware. The threat actors initially breach the OT network and gain unauthorized access to the safety controller to deploy the malware.\n\nWorking of TRITON\n\nIn one of the campaigns uncovered by CISA, adversaries deployed multiple assets written in Python and PowerPC programs to target PowerPC based Triconex MP3008.\nThe threat actor executes a Python executable after initial entry which executes an injector to modify the firmware of the controller to append TRITON implant in memory. The implant serves the purpose of RAT.\nUpon sending a known command (trigger) to the compromised controller the implant starts executing, giving the threat actor complete control over the controller.\nThe main python module has a custom implementation of the TriStation protocol used for making connections between the compromised system and the safety controller Tricon.\nThe TRITON malware has the following components:\n\nAn executable program is used to program a Tricon device without the TriStation Protocol software.\nA Power-PC based native shellcode that acts as an injector which injects the malicious implant.\nThe malicious implant is a Power-PC based native shellcode capable of performing write/read operations in the firmware memory and executing code at an arbitrary address within the firmware.\n\n\nThe injector has a complex logic that performs various checks to exploit 0-day vulnerabilities in the firmware, to escalate privilege to eventually write the implant in the address space of the firmware.\nOnce the injector gains supervisor permissions by exploiting the 0-day, it copies the implant shellcode in the firmware address space and patches the RAM/ROM consistency check to make sure that the controller doesn\'t fault on firmware modification and make changes to jump table entry for a specific TriStation protocol command so that it points to the address of the copied implant.\nWhen the malware has successfully appended the implant in the firmware of the controller, by issuing the modified Tristation protocol command, the threat actor can invoke the implant to reprogram the controller.\nThe changes made to the firmware will be persistent only in memory and will be lost when the device is reset.\n\nImpact & Mitigation of the Cyber Attacks\n\n\n\nImpact\nMitigation\n\n\n\n\nThe leaked information could be used to gain initial access to the company\xe2\x80\x99s infrastructure.\nIf the leaked data is not encrypted it could enable account takeovers.\nCommonly used passwords or weak passwords could lead to brute force attacks.\nIt would equip malicious actors with the details required to launch sophisticated ransomware attacks.\n\n\n\n\nCheck for possible workarounds and patches while keeping the ports open.\nImplement a strong password policy and enable MFA (multi-factor authentication) across logins.\nPatch vulnerable and exploitable endpoints.\nMonitor for anomalies in user accounts, which could indicate possible account takeovers.\n\n\n\n\n\nIndicators of Compromise (IoCs)\n\n\n\nSHA-1\n\n\n1dd89871c4f8eca7a42642bf4c5ec2aa7688fd5c\n25dd6785b941ffe6085dd5b4dbded37e1077e222\n\n\na6357a8792e68b05690a9736bc3051cba4b43227\ndc81f383624955e0c0441734f9f1dabfe03f373c\n\n\nd6e997a4b6a54d1aeedb646731f3b0893aee4b82\n78265509956028b34a9cb44d8df1fcc7d0690be2\n\n\n66d39af5d61507cf7ea29e4b213f8d7dc9598bed\n1c7769053cfd6dd3466b69988744353b3abee013\n\n\n97e785e92b416638c3a584ffbfce9f8f0434a5fd\nf403292f6cb315c84f84f6c51490e2e8cd03c686\n\n\n2262362200aa28b0eead1348cb6fda3b6c83ae01\nb47ad4840089247b058121e95732beb82e6311d0\n\n\n\nReferences\n\n*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_source_and_information_reliability\n#https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_Light_Protocol\nhttps://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/aa22-083a\nhttps://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2022/03/fbi-pin-tlp-white-triton-malware-remains-threat-to-global-critical-infrastructure-industrial-control-systems-ics-3-24-22.pdf\n\n 

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https://www.askcybersecurity.com/cyber-security-news-06-september-2019/

CISA Warn of Hurricane Relief Scams – Mozilla Patches Firefox Web Browser Security Issues – Hackers Attack New Bedford, Mass with RansomwareCISA Warn of Hurricane Relief Scamshttps://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2019/09/04/potential-hurricane-dorian-cyber-scamsThe US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warns the public that scammers typically attempt to take advantage of disaster victims and the people who want to help them. Hurricane Dorian victims and potential donors should be aware that scammers may send phishing emails seeking credit card or banking information in fraudulent aid appeals, launch malware campaigns through emails with malicious attachments, or direct users to spoof donation websites. Hurricane Dorian victims and donors should use great care if they receive emails soliciting donations or asking them to view disaster related websites or documents. Any email link or attachment should be examined carefully and the sender vetted. Donors should always be cautious of social media, email, web, and texts pleas for help.Mozilla Patches Firefox Web Browser to Address Security IssuesMozilla released updates to its Firefox web browser to address cyber security vulnerabilities in Firefox 69, Firefox ESR 68.1, and Firefox ESR 60.9. Users should update Firefox as some of the vulnerabilities are serious threats. Hackers could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of a device.Firefox users and system administrators should review the vulnerabilities and patch apps as soon as possible. According to Mozilla some of the vulnerabilities are:CVE-2019-11751: Malicious code execution through command line parametersThis vulnerability only affects Firefox web browsers running on Windows operating systems.This is a critical patch. If a user opens Firefox from another application such as a messaging app or document, this vulnerability can be used to write a log file to any arbitrary location on that machine. For example, if a hacker wrote to the Windows Startup folder, they could launch other executables the next time the machine is restarted.CVE-2019-11753: Privilege escalation with Mozilla Maintenance Service in custom Firefox installation locationThis is a high-priority patch that affects Windows machines only. When installing Firefox, the installer allows the user to choose a custom installation location. This is a vulnerability as it is unprotected from hackers, non-admin users, and malware. Hacker altered maintenance services can run with escalated privileges during a subsequent security update.This is a lower severity security patch in which malicious web content can get at a user\xe2\x80\x99s webcam without triggering a user prompt or notification. The vulnerability allows for fingerprinting of users.Ransomware Attacks New Bedford, MassachusettsHackers demanded $5.3 million payable in Bitcoin in another ransomware attack that locked up the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts IT system. The city\xe2\x80\x99s mayor stated that the attack affected four percent of New Bedford\xe2\x80\x99s computers. The city tried to negotiate for $400,000 ransom which the hackers rejected. Ultimately, the city chose to decrypt servers themselves. It is believed that this is a Ryuk ransomware attack in which hackers manually delete backups and reset snapshots before launching the attack.

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https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/general-electric-darpa-hack-claims-raise-national-security-concerns

General Electric and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have reportedly been breached, according to claims on the Dark Web that the organizations' highly sensitive stolen data is up for sale.A screen capture from the Dark Web ad shows a threat actor named IntelBroker selling access credentials, DARPA-related military information, SQL files, and more.GE confirmed to Dark Reading its knowledge of stolen data that's up for sale and that it's investigating the issue."We are aware of claims made by a bad actor regarding GE data and are investigating these claims," according to a GE spokesperson. "We will take appropriate measures to help protect the integrity of our systems."GE, DARPA Data at StakeGE and DARPA have been coordinating on a number of cutting-edge research initiatives over the years that could be attractive targets for cyberattacks, according to Rosa Smothers, a former CIA cyber threat analyst and current KnowBe4 vice president."DARPA has been collaborating with GE on various projects over the years — for example, non-drug treatments for diabetes and the development of mobile systems for creating DNA and RNA-based vaccines," Smothers says. "One collaboration of particular interest is the MIND [Monitoring & Inspection Device] project, which aims to improve the network security of crucial information systems. Perhaps ironically, this particular venture was initiated in response to an increased number of security breaches."Contrast Security's Tom Kellermann says that DARPA's data stores, worryingly, also include classified information on weapons programs, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) research.Follow-on Attacks on Federal Agencies?Beyond classified information falling into adversaries' hands, experts have expressed worry about follow-on cyberattacks being launched with stolen GE credentials."I am very concerned that GE's environment is being used to conduct island hopping into federal agencies," Kellermann said, in a statement. "IntelBroker is notorious for selling access to compromised systems. I would assume the Chinese and Russians are already in."IntelBroker has already pulled off a number of high-profile cyberattacks and should be considered a serious threat, particularly by government agencies, according to Darren Williams, CEO and founder of BlackFog."Data related to the government is highly prized, so companies in collaboration with government agencies need to be reminded that they also have a responsibility to protect that data from exfiltration and malicious use," Williams said, in a statement.Making matters more dangerous, the threat actors claimed they accessed GE's development environment."Since the breach occurred in the development environment runtime security must be immediately implemented in conjunction with expansive threat hunting to identify the backdoor," Kellermann added. "This breach has serious national security implications."

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/general-electric-darpa-hack-claims-raise-national-security-concerns

General Electric and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have reportedly been breached, according to claims on the Dark Web that the organizations' highly sensitive stolen data is up for sale.A screen capture from the Dark Web ad shows a threat actor named IntelBroker selling access credentials, DARPA-related military information, SQL files, and more.GE confirmed to Dark Reading its knowledge of stolen data that's up for sale and that it's investigating the issue."We are aware of claims made by a bad actor regarding GE data and are investigating these claims," according to a GE spokesperson. "We will take appropriate measures to help protect the integrity of our systems."GE, DARPA Data at StakeGE and DARPA have been coordinating on a number of cutting-edge research initiatives over the years that could be attractive targets for cyberattacks, according to Rosa Smothers, a former CIA cyber threat analyst and current KnowBe4 vice president."DARPA has been collaborating with GE on various projects over the years — for example, non-drug treatments for diabetes and the development of mobile systems for creating DNA and RNA-based vaccines," Smothers says. "One collaboration of particular interest is the MIND [Monitoring & Inspection Device] project, which aims to improve the network security of crucial information systems. Perhaps ironically, this particular venture was initiated in response to an increased number of security breaches."Contrast Security's Tom Kellermann says that DARPA's data stores, worryingly, also include classified information on weapons programs, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) research.Follow-on Attacks on Federal Agencies?Beyond classified information falling into adversaries' hands, experts have expressed worry about follow-on cyberattacks being launched with stolen GE credentials."I am very concerned that GE's environment is being used to conduct island hopping into federal agencies," Kellermann said, in a statement. "IntelBroker is notorious for selling access to compromised systems. I would assume the Chinese and Russians are already in."IntelBroker has already pulled off a number of high-profile cyberattacks and should be considered a serious threat, particularly by government agencies, according to Darren Williams, CEO and founder of BlackFog."Data related to the government is highly prized, so companies in collaboration with government agencies need to be reminded that they also have a responsibility to protect that data from exfiltration and malicious use," Williams said, in a statement.Making matters more dangerous, the threat actors claimed they accessed GE's development environment."Since the breach occurred in the development environment runtime security must be immediately implemented in conjunction with expansive threat hunting to identify the backdoor," Kellermann added. "This breach has serious national security implications."

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://cybersecuritynews.com/data-leak-exposes-us-energy-to-cyber-attack/

\r\n \r\n \nResearchers discovered an exposed database comprising more than 70,000 private files that referred to firms and individuals inside RigUp’s client of U.S energy sector workers.\n\n\n\nWell, RigUp is a Texas-based start-up that supplies gig workers for the oil and gas sector. Before this week’s announcements came to the spotlight, it had already survived defeating off more than 100 employees due to the COVID-19 outbreak.\n\n\n\nLuckily, RigUp replied to vpnMentor’s report immediately. If any ill-disposed attackers gained access to the delicate files, the company’s clients could have got themselves on the acquiring end of criminal attacks, covering tax and insurance scams, identity theft, and many more. \n\n\n\nTill now, no reports of that kind have surfaced through a security violation of this scale is always disturbing and can do tremendous damage to any company, but particularly one that’s just starting to get off the ground.\n\n\n\n Timeline of Discovery \n\n\n\nWell, the security portal, vpnMentor stated that most often, we require a few days for research and examine before we realize what’s at the post or who’s dripping the data. Investigating a breach and its possible influence takes mindful awareness and time. Therefore, we work hard to announce right and trustworthy reports, assuring everybody who interprets them realizes their seriousness.\n\n\n\nHowever, the company accepted full accountability for the exposure \xe2\x80\x93 a rare experience \xe2\x80\x93 and promised a root cause investigation would be conducted.\n\n\n\n Data Leak Includes \n\n\n\nThe exposed S3 bucket was a live database, with over 76,000 files exposed, amounting to over 100GB of data and dating from July 2018 to March 2020. Now many of you might be thinking that what are those files and what they include? Don’t worry, as below we have mentioned everything that you want to know:-\n\n\n\nRepresentative and candidate resumes.Personal photos, including some private family photos.Paperwork and IDs associated with insurance policies and procedures.Professional IDs.Profile photos, covering US military personnel.Scans of professional certificates in diverse fields.\n\n\n\nHere we have some examples mentioned below:-\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA resume of a job applicant, revealing numerous PII data.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA personal family photo that is found in the database.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMotor insurance policy ID card.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA certificate from US govt.\n\n\n\nMoreover, all these files carried essential Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data for the people influenced, including:-\n\n\n\nContact details like names, addresses, phone numbers, home addresses.Social Security data.Dates of birth.Insurance plan and tax numbers.Private photos.Additional information regarding education and professional skills.\n\n\n\n Data Breach Impact \n\n\n\nWell, ensuring its database, RigUp (a billion-dollar business) negotiated the safety and protection of the 1,000s of people over the USA. However, now the question arises here that if these malicious hackers found this database, it would have been a complete goldmine for several scam plans and criminal attacks upon every one connected.\n\n\n\n How security researchers discovered the Breach \n\n\n\nBasically, the vpnMentor investigation team discovered the BreachBreach in RigUp’s database as a section of a large web mapping project. Their researchers simply utilized the port scanning to explore particular IP blocks and inquire about several systems for flaws or vulnerabilities. Therefore, their team was capable of obtaining this database because it was unsecured and unencrypted.\n\n\n\nWhen they detect a data breach, they simply use the skillful procedures to confirm the owner of the database, usually a commercial company. Well, as ethical hackers, they’re compelled to notify a company when they detect flaws in their online safety or security. \n\n\n\nSo, what do you think about this? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.\n

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.askcybersecurity.com/cyber-security-news-update-02-01-19/

Cyber Security News UpdateFacebook Data PrivacyFacebook topped cyber security news all week. It was brought to light that Facebook has been paying teenagers about $20 a month to use its VPN, Facebook Research, which invasively monitors phones activity. Facebook Research is on Apple and Android devices. To circumvent Apple\xe2\x80\x99s App Store policies, Facebook offered downloads through third-party sites. The company advertised to teenagers through Instagram and Snapchat ads.Facebook research VPN gave Facebook access to phone messages in social media apps, non-e2e chats from instant messaging apps, emails, web searches, web browser activity, and location data. Facebook Research claims to work toward “helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices.\xe2\x80\x9d Apple has revoked the access Facebook Research needs to run on iPhones.Previously, Facebook was caught collecting data from phones in through another Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, Onavo Protect, that it acquired in 2013. Apple pulled Onavo from its App Store after Facebook was caught using Onavo to track user activity and data across multiple apps. This is a violation of Apple App Store guidelines and the app was removed in August 2018.Airbus HackEuropean airplane manufacturer Airbus announced that hackers have breached its Commercial Aircraft business information systems. The hacked data includes professional contacts and information on employees in Europe. The company states that its aircraft production is not compromised or affected.Airbus has reported the incident to officials and the data protection authorities in compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration CenterDNS Infrastructure Hijacking CampaignThe US National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) announced it was tracking a global Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure hijacking campaign. Hackers launch the cyber attack by compromising user login credentials that have the authority to edit DNS records.The hackers then edit DNS records, like Address (A), Mail Exchanger (MX), or Name Server (NS) records, replacing the proper address of a service with a false address. The new records are for services that the cyber criminal controls and uses to send the web traffic to their own infrastructure where it is decrypted.

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.cybersecurity-review.com/critical-infrastructure-protection/the-race-towards-renewable-energy-is-creating-new-cybersecurity-risks/

b' One moment, please... Please wait while your request is being verified... '

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https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/02/01/defending-the-smart-grid-what-security-measures-to-implement/

Smart grids are a fundamental component of the European critical infrastructure. They are rooted on communication networks that have become essential elements allowing the leveraging of the “smart” features of power grids. Smart grids provide real-time information on the grid, perform actions when required without any noticeable lag, and support gathering customer consumption information. On the downside, smart grids however, provide an increased attack surface for criminals. For instance, smart meters can be hacked to cut power bills as happened in Spain in 2014 or due to a DDoS attack or malware infection, communications and control of the network could be lost, causing an energy production halt and affecting several systems across borders. To protect networks and devices from cyber threats, a new ENISA study focuses on the evaluation of interdependencies to determine their importance, risks, mitigation factors and possible security measures to implement. There is high exposure of smart grid devices that makes it essential to harmonize the current situation by establishing common interconnection protocols. It has also become imperative to seek aligning policies, standards and regulations across the EU to ensure the overall security of smart grids. These aspects have currently grown in importance due to the risk that cascading failures could result since smart grid communication networks are no longer limited by physical or geographical barriers, and an attack on one country could transgress physical and virtual borders. The recommendations of this report are addressed to operators, vendors, manufacturers and security tools providers in the EU and they include the following: Foster intercommunication protocol compatibility between devices originating from different manufacturers and vendors Develop a set of minimum security requirements to be applied in all communication interdependencies in smart grids Implement security measures on all devices and protocols that are part, or make use of the smart grid communication network.

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/government-malware-targeting-energy-grids/

\n\t\t\tResearchers have found government malware on the Dark Web that could be used against energy grids. Black Energy was used in the Ukrainian Power Grid attacks in December of 2015 and could pose a threat to energy grids around the world. Tim Erlin, Senior Director of IT Security and Risk Strategy at Tripwire and Dwayne Melancon, CTO of Tripwire commented below.\nTim Erlin, Senior Director of IT Security and Risk Strategy at Tripwire:\n\xe2\x80\x9cWe\xe2\x80\x99ve already seen that the industrial systems controlling the power grid can be vulnerable to cyber attacks. It\xe2\x80\x99s no surprise that governments are investing in an expanding arsenal of tools to leverage these weaknesses. Protecting critical infrastructure from cyber attacks is increasingly an intrinsic part of national defense for any country.\xe2\x80\x9d\n“The energy industry, including electrical utilities, requires substantial investment to tilt the playing field towards defense. At the moment, the attackers have the advantage. When it comes to critical infrastructure, the relationship between government and private industry can be difficult. With our current level of investment, we may not be shooting ourselves in the foot, but the hand holding the gun isn\xe2\x80\x99t always pointing at the right target.\nWhile there are some cybersecurity standards in the electric utility industry, critical infrastructure in the broader sense suffers from a lack of enforceable best practices. It\xe2\x80\x99s not as simple as applying corporate IT security processes and tools to critical infrastructure. There are unique requirements, unique devices, and unique threats to consider.\nWe cannot wait for a significant incident to change our behavior with regard to critical infrastructure cybersecurity. We\xe2\x80\x99re not talking about financial loss and recovery here. We\xe2\x80\x99re talking about safety and potential loss of life.”\nDwayne Melancon, CTO at Tripwire:\n“When it comes to critical systems \xe2\x80\x93 and particularly, critical infrastructure \xe2\x80\x93 it pays to make attackers\xe2\x80\x99 lives more difficult. For example, implementing multi-factor authentication to prevent access using only a password is crucial. Additionally, organizations should segment their networks to limit the amount of sensitive information that can be accessed by a single account. In particular, accounts with \xe2\x80\x9csuper powers\xe2\x80\x9d (such as creating new users, changing access permissions, or performing potentially harmful operations) should not only be tightly controlled, they should be aggressively monitored to look for unusual activity.”\n\t\t

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.industrialdefender.com/industries/electric-utilities-cybersecurity

ComplianceCentralize your OT asset data and automate compliance with a suite of built-in reporting capabilities for international regulations and standards.Explore

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https://www.msspalert.com/news/a2v-network-promotes-energy-grid-cybersecurity

The Asset to Vendor (A2V) Network for power utilities, a joint venture between Fortress Information Security and American Electric Power (AEP) birthed in November, 2019, aims to promote collaboration among electric companies to protect the U.S. power grid from cyber threats.One of the nascent association’s guiding principles for member energy suppliers is to reduce the costs associated with cybersecurity regulatory compliance to cope with budgetary limitations. Another is the ability to contribute their own completed risk assessments for purchase by the network and to receive a portion of the proceeds to recoup some of their costs. Yet another is to add to the national cyber risk assessment briefcase for utilities.In June 2020, A2V landed its first partner in Atlanta-based Southern Company. Now the venerable Hitachi ABB Power Grids said it has joined the A2V group, toting its cybersecurity preparedness with U.S. and Canadian power utilities to share.Hitachi ABB is a major supplier of grid infrastructure, operations and control systems for power utilities throughout the U.S., headquartered principally in Switzerland and in Raleigh, North Carolina, with power grid operators in North America deploying its energy technology capable of “withstanding cyber threats from multiple threat actors,” the company said. It intends to share responses to cybersecurity assessment requests from the company with current AEP and Southern members and future participants."Utilities are required to conduct cybersecurity assessments of many of their vendors to remain in compliance with regulatory requirements,” said David Goddard, who heads Digital at Hitachi ABB. “By sharing information through the Asset to Vendor Network, Hitachi ABB Power Grids is simplifying the process for utilities and reducing the amount of effort and cost involved in completing multiple, similar assessments. This in turn frees up resources for all concerned, enabling them to focus on their core businesses, maintaining strong, reliable and resilient grids."Drawing on information from multiple vendors housed in a single location, A2V members can access standardized assessments that will lower their risk and expedite their compliance with Critical Infrastructure Protection standards from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Fortress said. In addition, A2V is also helping utilities comply with the White House's new Executive Order on the acquisition and installation of bulk power system equipment sourced from foreign adversaries. In July, the Federal Communications Commission formally banned Chinese telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE, long alleged by U.S. officials to be glaring threats to national security, from supplying gear to U.S. installations.Hitachi ABB Power Grid: More Perspectives"Hitachi ABB Power Grids is making a huge statement that transparency and trust is core to their business," said Alex Santos, chief executive and co-founder of the Orlando, Florida-based Fortress. "This action will make the grid safer. Because of Hitachi ABB Power Grids' participation, utility companies will be better positioned to take fast action to protect their customers and physical assets from cyber threats."It’s a similar sentiment to what Santos expressed when Southern joined the network. “The utility industry, like no other, is built on the foundation of collaboration. When faced with a challenge, whether it be a natural disaster or an attack on a power grid, the industry comes together,” he said at the time.Power utilities share many of the same supply chain vendors for equipment, software and services for their Bulk Electric Systems, an industry practice that hackers have exploited in an increasing number of attacks on the energy grid.

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https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/mega-breaches-employed-familiar-preventable-attacks

The attacks that led to the mass theft of over 130 million credit and debit card accounts may hold the record for the biggest overall breach ever charged in the U.S., but the attackers used classic and well-known methods that could have been thwarted, according to experts.In the wake of the big news yesterday that one man is suspected to be behind the biggest breaches ever charged in U.S. history, security experts say the indictment of 28-year-old Albert Gonzalez, aka "segvec," "soupnazi," and "j4guar17," of Miami, Fla., revealed that Gonzalez and his cohorts exploited vulnerabilities that are typically found in many cybercrime cases --SQL injection, packet sniffing, and backdoor malware designed to evade detection.The indictment (PDF) revealed that Gonzalez, who previously had been charged for his alleged role in the breach of TJX, BJ's Wholesale Club, Barnes & Noble, and Dave & Buster's, has now also been indicted for allegedly conspiring to break into computers and stealing credit and debit card data from Heartland Payment Systems; 7-Eleven Inc., Hannaford Brothers Co., and two other major national retailers whose names were withheld in the filing.While the attacks appear to be phased-in and coordinated, the attackers didn't employ any hacks that the victim organizations could not have defended against, experts say. SQL injection, for instance, is the most commonly exploited flaw in Web attacks, according to data from the Web Hacking Incident Database.The attacks outlined in the indictment basically provide a roadmap for how most breaches occur, says Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security. "This is how cybercrime is done," Graham says. "If there is a successful attack against your company, this is roughly what the hackers will have done. Thus, this should serve as a blueprint for your cyber defenses."Rich Mogull, founder of Securosis, says the nature of the attacks didn't surprise him. "But that this, including TJX, was all traced to a single individual stunned me," Mogull says.But aside from the revelation that just a few attackers pulled off the multiple breaches, Mogull says the attacks were preventable, mainly because they employed common hacking techniques that can be foiled.And, he says, the attacks appear to mimic those warned in a an advisory (PDF) issued by the FBI and Secret Service in February that warned of attacks on the financial services and online retail industry that targeted Microsoft's SQL Server. The advisory included ways to protect against such attacks, including disabling SQL stored procedure calls."This seems to be a roadmap" to these breaches, Mogull says. "The indictment tracks very closely to the nature of attacks in that notice."Meanwhile, Rick Howard, intelligence director for iDefense, says the fact that no new techniques were used in the hacks shows how enterprises still aren't closing known holes in their networks and applications. "They were using the same stuff that works all the time," he says. "And it's [an example of] another organization not diligent in closing up [vulnerabilities] we know about."The indictment says that in October of 2006, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators allegedly began to systematically scout out potential corporate victims, going on-site to retail stores to gather intelligence such as the type of payment processing systems and point-of-sale systems they used, and visiting their Websites to identify potential vulnerabilities. Gonzalez allegedly provided his co-conspirators -- two of whom resided in Russia, and another in Virginia Beach, Va. -- with SQL injection strings to use for hacking into the victims' networks. He also provided them with malware to plant inside the victims' systems that would serve as a backdoor for subsequent access.There's no indication in the filing that the database itself was breached, but Upesh Patel, vice president of business development at Guardium, says the attackers must have exploited applications with authenticated connections to the database. "The breaches involved vast amounts of data that clearly resides in the database," Patel says. "Since a SQL Injection attack exploits vulnerabilities in the database, the attack could have occurred from any end-user application that was accessing the database."The attackers also installed sniffers to capture credit and debit-card numbers and other card data. They wrote malware that could avoid detection by anti-virus software in order to remain under the radar. The stolen data was sent back to servers operated by the suspects that were located in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, according to the indictment. Errata's Graham says the initial attack vector, SQL injection, is often dismissed by enterprises as unimportant. "We always find lots of SQL injection [flaws] with our clients. We talk to them about it, but get push-back from management and developers who claim SQL injection is just a theoretical risk. There's still widespread misunderstanding and disbelief about the severity of it," he says. Graham says he thinks that's because SQL injection flaws are different with each site, not like the typical exploit that's written to a newly disclosed vulnerability."While defenders will keep up to date on patches and firewalls their Websites, they rarely check for SQL injection bugs. The simple solution is to force developers to either use 'parameterized' queries or 'sanitize' input," he says. It also helps to harden your SQL-based servers."Once they got control of the database, they were able to escalate the attack to install malware on the systems. The simple solution is to remove all features of the database that aren't needed," he says, such as "xp_cmdshell," which attackers commonly abuse."There are many kinds of databases -- find a hardening guide for your database and follow it," Graham says.AV doesn't catch custom malware like the attackers wrote for their attacks, so add policies and technologies that can spot unknown threats, he says.And Gonzalez and his cohorts' alleged use of their own sniffers that copied card data from the network could have been thwarted with encryption, he says. "The credit card numbers were being sent unencrypted. The solution is to make sure that credit-card numbers are encrypted end-to-end, and that at no point do they exist [in an] unencrypted [form], Graham says.Securosis' Mogull says to lock databases down to prevent any command execution via SQL, and not to use a privileged account for the relational database management system. In a blog post, he says to deploy data leakage protection to see if you can detect any card data internally before the bad guys find it, and lock down database and application servers in the transaction network to avoid custom malware infections, and to focus on egress filtering."This was preventable," Securosis' Mogull says of the major breaches. "There was some degree of sophistication -- like they knew HSMs -- but definitely the main way they got in is not the most sophisticated." Meanwhile, it's unclear why the other two major retailer victims included in the indictment weren't named. "Are they in violation of their breach disclosure?" Mogull says. "Something's going on there."Gonzalez, who is in federal custody, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on wire fraud conspiracy, and another five years on conspiracy, plus $250,000 for each of the charges. The U.S. Attorney's Office in May of 2008 charged him for allegedly hacking a national restaurant chain, charges he goes to trial for in September.And there may be more: prosecutors say they are investigating other breaches, in which Gonzalez could have been involved as well, according to published report.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Dark Reading's editors directly, send us a message.

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https://cyberscoop.com/biden-administration-energy-department-defense-cyberattacks/

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\nThe Biden administration is buckling down on cyber threats to U.S. power infrastructure.\n\n\n\nThe Department of Energy (DOE) announced a 100-day plan to help shore up the U.S. electric power system against cyber threats Tuesday. \n\n\n\nThe plan, rolled out with the private sector and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is meant to help owners and operators develop more comprehensive approaches to detection, mitigation and forensic capabilities, according to the National Security Council.\n\n\n\nAs part of the plan, the DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, will focus on getting industrial control system (ICS) owners and operators to select and use technologies that will help gain real-time awareness of cyber threats, and response capabilities, according to a release.\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\tAdvertisement\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\nThe DOE will also be encouraging the deployment of technologies that boost visibility into threats in both ICS and operational technology networks.\n\n\n\n“The United States faces a well-documented and increasing cyber threat from malicious actors seeking to disrupt the electricity Americans rely on to power our homes and businesses,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “It’s up to both government and industry to prevent possible harms — that’s why we’re working together to take these decisive measures so Americans can rely on a resilient, secure, and clean energy system.”\n\n\n\nThe 100-day plan comes as the energy industry and DOE grapple with an alleged Russian government sweeping espionage campaign involving the federal contractor SolarWinds. DOE is one of several federal government agencies that found malicious software on its networks linked with the hacking operation — which officials have warned could have turned destructive.\n\n\n\nThe 100-day plan also coincides with the U.S. intelligence community’s warning last week that Russia has been targeting industrial control systems, and amid concerns that Chinese hackers have recently been probing the energy sector in India. The U.S. intelligence community also recently assessed that Chinese government hackers are capable of causing damage to critical infrastructure in the U.S.\n\n\n\nThe Biden administration is also revoking an executive order issued during the Trump administration meant to limit foreign-sourced equipment in the electric sector. The order, which targets the bulk-power systems that deal with electricity generation and transmission, would allow the Energy Secretary to vet equipment before it is installed to check for potential national security threats. \n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\tAdvertisement\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\nIt also would allow the DOE to check gear already in use.\n\n\n\nThe Biden administration is seeking input before issuing a new executive order on the matter. The DOE issued a Request for Information on Tuesday to receive industry and expert feedback on next steps to improve the country’s electric power system supply chain risk management efforts. In the meantime, the administration urged industry leaders to utilities to exercise caution around foreign influence or foreign-sourced gear.\n\n\n\nTobias Whitney, a former North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) official said input from stakeholders would be key to moving forward.\n\n\n\n“It is reassuring to see that Biden’s process appears to seek robust industry dialogue to enable industry stakeholders of all sizes to be part of the solution,” said Whitney, now vice president of energy security solutions at Fortress Information Security. “The 100-day plan is appropriate for setting the strategy while seeking input from industry stakeholders to refine the tactical execution of the final policy ruling.”\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWritten by Shannon Vavra\n\t\t\tShannon Vavra covers the NSA, Cyber Command, espionage, and cyber-operations for CyberScoop. She previously worked at Axios as a news reporter, covering breaking political news, foreign policy, and cybersecurity.\xc2\xa0She has appeared on live national television and radio to discuss her reporting, including on MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, CBS, Al Jazeera, NPR, WTOP, as well as on podcasts including Motherboard\xe2\x80\x99s CYBER and The CyberWire\xe2\x80\x99s Caveat.\xc2\xa0Shannon hails from Chicago and received her bachelor\xe2\x80\x99s degree from Tufts University.\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn This Story\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

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https://www.intertrust.com/news/power-summit-2023-balance-of-power-europes-energy-crisis-war-cybersecurity-and-climate-change/

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPower Summit 2023 Balance of Power – Europe’s energy crisis: war, cybersecurity and climate change\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.askcybersecurity.com/cyber-security-news-update-03-01-2019/

A comprehensive study on the means and methods of malicious attacks found that 40% of all dangerous links are found on good or otherwise trusted websites. This makes sense as someone is less likely to click a link on a website that feels unsafe than they are to follow something on a website they “know” to be trustworthy. Following the trend of “comfort equals increased risk profile” trend, users who are at home or somewhere familiar are twice as likely to infect or compromise their devices as users who are not at home. This is understandable as your guard is down when you’re at home, that’s why it’s “home.” The study shows that security training is effective though as incidents fall by 70% or more within a year of users receiving the training. Additionally, devices running the newest version of their OS and kept up-to-date are 50% less likely to suffer an infection and are generally more secure. Enterprise devices should have a forced update feature that automatically installs software updates during downtime or after a certain period of time.Source: Forty Percent of Malicious URLs Found on Good DomainsIranian black hat hacker group, IRIDIUM, attacked the Australian government in seeming retaliation for Australia considering removing its support for Iran due to Australia’s ties to Israel. IRIDIUM is a threat group that goes after political targets and largely ignores other potential victims unless it aids them in infiltrating their chosen prey. IRIDIUM routinely goes after the Five Eyes countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) and attempts to steal their data or otherwise impede their operations. IRIDIUM may have been involved with the large-scale cyber operation last year that stole data from over 300 universities, however, their active members shift frequently enough that it makes positively identifying them difficult due to a lack of telltale quirks and idiosyncrasies.Source: Iridium cyberespionage gang behind Aussie parliament attacksA database containing an international list of persons linked to high-profile crimes, politically compromised individuals and their associates, as well as government sanctions was found online and unguarded. This list not only had names but intimate details and included federal and state level evidence as well. It had been indexed by search engines and left unprotected, meaning that anyone with a working internet connection could find it. Dow Jones claims that all of its Watchlist data originates from publically available sources, so there was no breach of confidentiality and has since taken down the data. The Dow Jones Watchlist is used to assist in the vetting process for political positions. Despite the claimed public origins of the data, the easily searched and sorted format of the data is what made it a risk. The information could be used to create a profile of someone to steal more damaging information or begin an investigation on how to gain leverage of the compromised individual.Source: Dow Jones database holding 2.4 million records of politically exposed persons

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https://www.baselinemag.com/security/Security-Breach-Power-Plants-Data-Leaks-Onto-Net/

THE PROBLEM: Sensitive documents about a Japanese thermal power plant–including a list of the names and home addresses of the plant’s security personnel–were uploaded to an Internet file-sharing network by a program an employee installed on his computer.The documents provided information about a power plant in Owase, in central Japan, operated by Chubu Electric Power. They included details of the location of the control room, instrument panel room and boilers, according to an article in The Japan Times. The incident was disclosed by security officials May 15.Also leaked were manuals about dealing with “unconfirmed reports of intruders” at the plant, along with personal information about guards who work for the plant’s security firm, according to the article.Click here to read Baseline‘s 5-Step Security Survival Guide.The information was passed to the Internet through a Japanese file-sharing program called Share, installed on the computer of a 40-year-old employee of the plant’s security firm, after the computer was infected with a virus. He had started to use Share in March, according to Japan Times.The breach followed a similar incident in January, in which technical information from another Chubu thermal power plant leaked onto a file-sharing network from the virus-infected home computer of an employee. According to a Chubu statement, that information included a form used to record inspections as well as some inspection records, but didn’t include any information about nuclear materials, customers or power supplies.KEY LESSON: Make sure all computers that contain sensitive corporate data are protected from viruses and other Internet attacks–including those of contractors and employees’ home computers–and enforce a policy of banning Internet file-sharing software from corporate PCs.Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for U.K.-based antivirus software vendor Sophos, believes Chubu and other Japanese companies have been targeted by virus writers who have written malware specifically to disclose data over file-sharing networks. “All businesses need to take steps to ensure that employees’ use of company data is secured and controlled,” he says.Do you have a tip about an information-systems snafu? Send it to [email protected].

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https://em360tech.com/tech-article/general-electric-cyber-attack

General Electric is investigating claims that a threat actor broke into the company’s development environment in a cyber attack and leaked confidential, DARPA data.  A prolific hacker that goes by the name of IntelBroker claimed to have breached the manufacturing and technology giant earlier this month, attempting to sell the company’s “development and software pipelines” and DARPA data for $500 on a dark-web hacking forum.  When they couldn’t sell the data, the hacker posted again that they were selling both the network access and the alleged stolen data. As proof of the supposed breach, the IntelBroker shared screenshots of what they claim is confidential General Electric data. This screenshot, which has since been shared on X, includes a database from GE Aviation that appears to contain information on military projects. IntelBroker Screenshot showing alleged stolen General Electric data. Source: DeepWebKonek on X "I previously listed the access to General Electrics, however, no serious buyers have actually responded to me or followed up. I am now selling the entire thing here separately, including access (SSH, SVN etc)," reads the second post by IntelBroker.  "Data includes a lot of DARPA-related military information, files, SQL files, documents etc." Possible Data Breach Following reports of the breach, General Electric confirmed they were aware of the hacker's claims and were investigating the alleged data theft.  "We are aware of claims made by a bad actor regarding GE data and are investigating these claims. We will take appropriate measures to help protect the integrity of our systems," a General Electric Spokesperson told BleepingComputer. Although General Electric is yet to confirm the breach, IntelBroker is associated with several previous, high-profile cyber attacks where data was successfully stolen.  The threat actor has a history of leaking data from large corporations, including the US Immigration Service, Autotrader, Volvo, Hilton Hotels, Verizon, and AT&T. Law enforcement became more aware of these breaches and data dumps in succession. It’s also not the first time General Electric has been successfully infiltrated by threat actors. In 2020, an attack on a third-party provider, Canon Business Process Services, led to the industrial giant being forced to notify the authorities after employee data was successfully breached. “IntelBroker has already been responsible for a handful of high-profile attacks, with a reputable ability to steal very sensitive information. This attack will not only have a negative impact on the company itself but could have substantial implications for the current sensitive military projects the company tends to work on, which could in turn threaten U.S. national security," said Darren Williams, CEO and Founder of the cybersecurity firm BlackFog. "Data related to the government is highly prized, so companies in collaboration with government agencies need to be reminded that they also have a responsibility to protect that data from exfiltration and malicious use." "With the adoption and implementation of cybersecurity defences that prevent data exfiltration both in the network and through third-party suppliers, the U.S. and affiliated companies can ensure they stay one step ahead of cybercriminals," Williams added. 

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https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/fireeye-ceo-mandia-talks-rapid-rise-of-nation-state-threats

INTEROP ITX - Las Vegas - The threat of nation-state attacks isn't new to cybersecurity experts, but it's becoming increasingly complex. Old players and newcomers are raising the stakes for unprepared victims.Today's global geopolitical landscape was a core focus of FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia's keynote presentation at the Interop ITX conference here today. In the last 12 months, he said, the company has conducted more than 500 breach investigations.In 90% of the breaches FireEye has investigated, "victim zero" was initially hit with a spearphishing attack and opened a bad link or attachment, which led to the intrusion. In 50% of those breaches, he continued, attackers used features of programs we use every day."Attackers are exploiting human trust," Mandia emphasized. The threats are coming from everywhere as threat actors around the world have realized there's no real danger in conducting criminal activity. A lack of consequences will cause cybercrime to escalate."There are no risks or repercussions to hacking companies," he explained. Both targeted threats, and "spray and pray" campaigns intended to hit several targets at once, are done with impunity.Today's organizations face threats from all over the world: FireEye is responding to more state-sponsored intrusions than attacks launched by criminal actors looking for money, Mandia noted.Major players in the cyberthreat landscape include the Middle East, Eastern Europe, China, and North Korea. He's also seeing a rise in developing nations growing as cyber actors. Vietnam, for example, is not typically considered a military actor but is "actually really good at what they do" in cyberspace.It's difficult to tell whether an attacker is state-sponsored or a criminal. Nobody really knows what the international rules of engagement are, he said, and security experts are going up against more nation-states where there's no real deterrent for cybercrime."We're playing goalie," he said of security organizations building their defenses. "When a nation-state wants to get in, it's like Wayne Gretsky going in on a penalty shot. The puck is going to get in."In the wake of last week's widespread and damaging WannaCrypt ransomware worm attack, Mandia said ransomware is an example of how today's organizations are not taking the basic necessary steps to face modern cybersecurity threats.The fact that a server message block (SMB) exploit could spread to 200,000 machines is a sign "the hygiene still isn't there," he explained."I'm fifty-fifty on whether we'll figure out who did WannaCry," he continued, noting that whoever did the attack didn't want it to get such widespread attention. Now the culprit can't collect the ransom without being named for the attack."Cybersecurity has never been more important," said Mandia of current and emerging threats. People don't fully realize the implications of what could happen if their company was forced to go completely off the grid. The rise of IoT, especially with the integration of technology and physiology in smart health devices, will drive the spread of malware when it hits.Cyberattacks are hitting, and will continue to hit, businesses in new and unexpected ways. Anyone working in a security-related role should have a worst-case scenario in mind, and be thinking about how an attacker would evade their organization's security measures, he said.

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://deltarisk.com/blog/new-white-paper-details-threats-to-grid-cyber-security/

The power grid continues to be a target for sophisticated cyber attacks. In the past day, the latest attack – the biggest to ever hit Ukraine, according to its government – disrupted the Ukrainian state power distributor. Fortunately, this disruption didn’t impact power supplies or Ukraine’s broader operations. But this is yet another in a series of attacks that Ukraine has experienced. A new strain of ransomware dubbed “Petya” is suspected to be the cause of the attacks in the past day. On the heels of the WannaCry ransomware attacks that affected more than 75,000 users in 150 countries, this form of ransomware looks like a modified version with some of the same characteristics. Delta Risk’s latest white paper, Cyber Security and the Grid: The Definitive Guide, goes into greater detail about the power grid and critical infrastructure incidents that rocked Ukraine in December 2015 and December 2016, including key lessons learned from these attacks and potential implications for the U.S. In this in-depth report, you’ll also learn about: Technical and non-technical cyber security issues facing the grid Important North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Standards that need to be prioritized Critical infrastructure legal implications Download the white paper now to learn more about this important and timely topic.

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https://cybelangel.com/top-3-energy-industry-cyber-attacks-of-2021/

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe energy industry is the economic lifeline of every economy. From electricity to power our traffic systems, hospitals, and water treatment plants, to the oil producers that keep our automobiles moving. With so much relying on the industry, there are those who would seek to interrupt service or profit from their work. Today we\xe2\x80\x99re looking at the three most important cyber attacks on the energy industry from 2021:\xc2\xa0 \n1. Colonial Pipeline\n It\xe2\x80\x99s hard to start anywhere else but with Colonial Pipeline. The ransomware attack was the most disruptive ever on US infrastructure. The Colonial Pipeline supplies around 45 percent of the East Coast\xe2\x80\x99s fuel needs. From Texas to New York, fuel shortages arose overnight.\xc2\xa0 This ransomware attack resulted in a $4.4 million ransom payment made to DarkSide, a portion of which the FBI helped recover a significant proportion. Aside from that direct cost, gasoline shortages resulted from panicked motorists queuing up to fill up their tanks in light of the news. This attack reminded the average public of the role cybersecurity plays in our everyday lives.\xc2\xa0 \n2. Volue ASA\n The ransomware attack on Volue ASA occurred just before the Colonial Pipeline attack. In their case, the Norwegian energy company was targeted by Ryuk ransomware. The attack on Volue ASA was interesting in that it focused on encryption of files, databases, and applications only. This stands in contrast to the usual tactic of double extortion.\xc2\xa0 According to Volue no ransom was paid and operations were restored after some time.\xc2\xa0 \n3. COPEL and Electrobras\n For this list, we chose to group these two attacks. COPEL and Electrobras are state-owned Brazilian utility companies. In February 2021 DarkSide, the same ransomware gang responsible for the Colonial Pipeline attack extracted 1,000 gigs of data from COPEL\xe2\x80\x99s systems.\xc2\xa0 At the same time, an unidentified ransomware gang struck at Electrobras. This led to both electricity providers disconnecting from National Interconnected System which helps to route electricity throughout the country.\xc2\xa0   \nHow to avoid joining the companies on this list:\n CybelAngel offers multiple tools to reduce the cyber risk from ransomware gangs. Tools like Account Takeover Prevention can help protect a company by locating exposed credentials available on the web to be secured or updated before threat actors use them in a cyber attack.\xc2\xa0 Asset Discovery and Monitoring can identify exposed or vulnerable digital assets such as IoT/OT , active and lightweight directories, and remote access protocols that threat actors can exploit to further a cyberattack, through brute-forcing, credential stuffing or vulnerability exploitation.\xc2\xa0 Domain Protection is another layer of defense that identifies when threat actors have created a fraudulent domain to collect passwords, logins, or other sensitive information, or to execute malware.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.intelligentciso.com/2024/02/05/illuminating-the-cyber-shadows-bridewells-2024-cyberscape-briefing-reveals-major-threats-to-critical-national-infrastructure/

\n \n \t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\nIn a world where the digital shadows grow longer and cyberthreats continue to evolve with alarming sophistication, Bridewell’s 2024 CyberScape Briefing shines a light on the cybersecurity trends and threats facing critical national infrastructure (CNI) this year.  \n\n\n\nThe comprehensive data and analysis, gathered over the course of 2023 by the Bridewell Security Operations Centre (SOC) exposes undercurrents shaping our cyber reality from those on the front lines: intricate C2 frameworks, stealthy infostealers and deceptive fake updates. \n\n\n\nC2 frameworks: The Cobalt Strike phenomenon \n\n\n\nThis powerful digital technology has become the most prevalent type of C2 framework deployed by the cyber underworld. Designed as a commercial penetration testing tool, Cobalt Strike makes up 22% of the global cyberthreat infrastructure that Bridewell\xe2\x80\x99s professionals have been covertly tracking.  \n\n\n\nBetween January and December 2023, the use of Cobalt Strike skyrocketed by 27%. Cyber professionals scanned the globe for the source of these deployments and discovered that China accounted for 37% of the total number.  \n\n\n\nThe hotspot for this activity? Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Company Limited (AS45090) was the top ASN where they observed Cobalt Strike-related infrastructure being deployed and operated from in 2023. Cyberagents have been on high alert, encountering Cobalt Strike in 22% of Bridewell\xe2\x80\x99s clients in 2023, and the latest data suggests that the trend will continue in 2024. \n\n\n\nInfostealers: The shifting shadows \n\n\n\nRacoon Stealer variants, the digital pickpockets of the cyber world, were rife around the globe in 2023, but their popularity went into decline throughout the year. As these variant servers saw a 42% decrease in use by threat actors, Bridewell\xe2\x80\x99s team observed Ficker Stealer and WhiteSnake Stealer emerging as new vectors in Q4. \n\n\n\nRussia (31%), with Shelter LLC (AS211409) and AEZA INTERNATIONAL LTD (AS210644, AS204603), proved to be the primary source of information stealer infrastructure deployments, with links back to Russian ownership and ASNs originating from Russia, and surprisingly, the UK. Netherlands (25%), US (14%) and Germany (13%) were the other locations playing host to stealthy infostealers. \n\n\n\nOver 38% of Bridewell clients in 2023 saw information stealer attempts. The latest intel from Bridewell\xe2\x80\x99s experts, with exclusive data from its managed detection and response (MDR) service, suggests this trend will also continue in 2024. \n\n\n\nFake updates: The new disguise for malware \n\n\n\nPhishing and malspam campaigns are making way for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) poisoning, including fake update campaigns. Nefarious individuals behind this act have deployed cunning tricks to make users think they are downloading what they believe to be legitimate updates, only to then unleash malicious code instead. This code will infect the victim\xe2\x80\x99s device and provide access to systems, services and information. \n\n\n\nBridewell\xe2\x80\x99s SOC identified 33% of customers being impacted by fake update campaigns, with SocGhoulish being the most common type of malware dropped in these infections. \n\n\n\n\xe2\x80\x9cOur 2024 CyberScape Briefing reveals a world where the lines between legitimate tools and malicious intent are increasingly blurred,\xe2\x80\x9d said Martin Riley, Director of Managed Security Services at Bridewell. \xe2\x80\x9cWhere threats like C2 frameworks, infostealers and fake updates are evolving in sophistication and impact, it\xe2\x80\x99s necessary for organisations to stay ahead of the curve.\n\n\n\n\xe2\x80\x9cOur intelligence experts have meticulously analysed the trends and patterns, providing invaluable insights that empower CNI organisations to fortify their defences against these insidious threats. Vigilance and comprehensive cybersecurity strategies will prove key to navigating this landscape in 2024.\xe2\x80\x9d\nClick below to share this article\nFacebook \nTwitter \nLinkedIn\nEmail\nWhatsApp\n\n\t\t\t

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https://www.darkreading.com/cyber-risk/90-of-energy-security-pros-say-we-need-smart-grid-security-standards

PRESS RELEASE SAN FRANCISCO, CA— April 18, 2012— nCircle, the leader in information risk and security performance management, today announced the results of a survey of 104 security professionals in the energy and utility industry. nCircle and EnergySec, a DOE-funded, public-private partnership that works to enhance the cyber security of the electric infrastructure, jointly sponsored the survey. The online survey was conducted between March 12 and March 31, 2012. Highlights of the study include: · 75% of energy security professionals believe smart grid security has not been adequately addressed in smart grid deployment · 72% of energy security professionals believe smart grid security standards aren’t moving fast enough to keep up with deployment"Security has been addressed to varying degrees in many smart grid deployments, however it is going to be a challenge to keep pace with the constantly changing security landscape,” said Patrick Miller, CEO of EnergySec. “The analog and mechanical devices installed in most utilities were designed for a very different maintenance model than newer digital equipment being designed and installed today."Elizabeth Ireland, vice president of marketing for nCircle noted, “It’s pretty clear that information security professionals in the energy industry are uncomfortable with standards currently available for smart grid technology. Defining and implementing meaningful security standards is always a challenge but without standards, adoption of critical security controls across the smart grid industry is likely to be uneven at best.”More information on the nCircle and EnergySec Smart Grid survey is available here: http://www.ncircle.com/index.php?s=resources_surveys_Survey-SmartGrid-2012#standards.About EnergySecEnergySec is a community of information security, physical security, audit, disaster recovery, and business continuity professionals from energy industry utilities. Participation is international, including all regions throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. EnergySec operates many programs, events and technology solutions designed to help improve the security posture of the energy sector. EnergySec is incorporated as a non-profit organization and is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity. For more information, visit http://www.energysec.org.About nCirclenCircle is the leading provider of information risk and security performance management solutions to more than 6,500 businesses and government agencies worldwide. nCircle solutions enable enterprises of all sizes to (1) automate compliance and reduce risk, and (2) measure and compare the performance of their IT security program with their own goals and industry peers. nCircle solutions may be deployed on a customer’s premises, as a cloud-based service, or in combination, for maximum flexibility and value.nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership and has been ranked among the top 100 best places to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. To learn how you can more effectively protect your company visit us at http://www.ncircle.com.nCircle is a registered trademark of nCircle Network Security, Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

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https://www.lifars.com/2015/06/un-watchdog-nuclear-facilities-vulnerable-to-cyber-attacks/

In the first ever International Conference on Computer Security in a Nuclear World held in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano stressed that nuclear facilities around the world are vulnerable, while withstanding and facing cyber-attacks on a daily basis. The conference was attended by more than 650 experts from 92 member states of the UN.“Reports of actual or attempted cyberattacks are now virtually a daily occurrence,” said Mr.Amano. “Last year alone, there were cases of random malware-based attacks at nuclear power plants and of such facilities being specifically targeted.”Held and running from June 1 to June 5, the inaugural conference was organized and put together after the recent spate of cybercrimes putting cyber-security of critical infrastructure at risk. This makes vulnerable as cyber-terrorism is now a daily reality and the fundamental purpose of the conference is to bring together nations to a common forum in matters where cybersecurity and nuclear security meet. Other important issues that are and will be addressed in the conference are:Computer security from a national perspective.Trends in Cyberattacks and defense.Computer security management in nuclear security.Computer security threat analysis.Computer security for Industrial Control SystemsFocus on Operator experience in implementing computer security.“Staff responsible for nuclear security should know how to repel cyber-attacks and to limit the damage if systems are actually penetrated,” Mr. Amano added.“The IAEA is doing what it can to help governments, organizations, and individuals adapt to evolving technology-driven threats from skilled cyber adversaries.”A unifying measure in holding and repelling threatsAlong with the member states, organizations such as the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), The Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and others were all present to be made aware of the threats posed against nuclear facilities by cyber criminals and malicious hackers.This follows a trend of a coming together of the international community in facing cyber-threats together. In January, Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO of Kaspersky Labs, one of the largest IT and consumer security providers in the world called for international cooperation in cybersecurity.Such measures and a plea to bring together countries and organizations on an international scale is close to becoming a reality.“I encourage all countries to make full use of the services of the IAEA. Countries should also ensure that all internationally agreed nuclear security instruments are in force and actually used,” Mr. Amano said. “I am confident that this IAEA conference will make an important contribution to strengthening nuclear security throughout the world. I wish you every success with your deliberations.” Related Posts

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.lifars.com/2015/06/un-watchdog-nuclear-facilities-vulnerable-to-cyber-attacks/

In the first ever International Conference on Computer Security in a Nuclear World held in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano stressed that nuclear facilities around the world are vulnerable, while withstanding and facing cyber-attacks on a daily basis. The conference was attended by more than 650 experts from 92 member states of the UN.“Reports of actual or attempted cyberattacks are now virtually a daily occurrence,” said Mr.Amano. “Last year alone, there were cases of random malware-based attacks at nuclear power plants and of such facilities being specifically targeted.”Held and running from June 1 to June 5, the inaugural conference was organized and put together after the recent spate of cybercrimes putting cyber-security of critical infrastructure at risk. This makes vulnerable as cyber-terrorism is now a daily reality and the fundamental purpose of the conference is to bring together nations to a common forum in matters where cybersecurity and nuclear security meet. Other important issues that are and will be addressed in the conference are:Computer security from a national perspective.Trends in Cyberattacks and defense.Computer security management in nuclear security.Computer security threat analysis.Computer security for Industrial Control SystemsFocus on Operator experience in implementing computer security.“Staff responsible for nuclear security should know how to repel cyber-attacks and to limit the damage if systems are actually penetrated,” Mr. Amano added.“The IAEA is doing what it can to help governments, organizations, and individuals adapt to evolving technology-driven threats from skilled cyber adversaries.”A unifying measure in holding and repelling threatsAlong with the member states, organizations such as the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), The Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and others were all present to be made aware of the threats posed against nuclear facilities by cyber criminals and malicious hackers.This follows a trend of a coming together of the international community in facing cyber-threats together. In January, Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO of Kaspersky Labs, one of the largest IT and consumer security providers in the world called for international cooperation in cybersecurity.Such measures and a plea to bring together countries and organizations on an international scale is close to becoming a reality.“I encourage all countries to make full use of the services of the IAEA. Countries should also ensure that all internationally agreed nuclear security instruments are in force and actually used,” Mr. Amano said. “I am confident that this IAEA conference will make an important contribution to strengthening nuclear security throughout the world. I wish you every success with your deliberations.” Related Posts

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://ransomware.databreachtoday.com/us-officials-urged-to-examine-chinese-risk-to-electric-grid-a-21508

\n \n Critical Infrastructure Security\n \n US Officials Urged to Examine Chinese Risk to Electric Grid\n Utility Vendors Have Cut Back on Buying Chinese Transformers Due to Security Risks\n \n Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) •\n March 23, 2023     \n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n Image: Shutterstock \n \n Utility companies increasingly refrain from purchasing large power transformers from China given greater awareness of the security risks, a U.S. Department of Energy official told a Senate panel.See Also: Energy Sector Threat Brief\r\nPuesh Kumar said Thursday the U.S. government is analyzing the prevalence of Chinese-made components in the electric grid but wouldn\'t indicate when he expects the work to the done, frustrating senators on both sides of the aisle. The head of the department\'s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. \r\n"Determining the Chinese origin and content of crucial parts of the electric system is a \'hair on fire\' urgent demand," said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats. "The next time you\'re here, we need a much sharper answer to that, because that\'s an enormous opportunity for malicious activity." \r\nKumar said the Energy Department has probed which components of the electric grid would have a debilitating impact if disrupted and which subcomponents of electric equipment are from an adversarial nation, including China. \r\nNational laboratories have tested electrical equipment down to the chip or software level to determine its country of origin, Kumar said. As part of this analysis, he said the Energy Department must consider not only that China might exploit its own equipment but also that it could take advantage of equipment developed by a third party that has a vulnerability present.\r\n"The hard part about some of these questions is, at the top level, it could look like an American manufacturer or a friendly country," Kumar said. "But when you get down to the subcomponent level, it gets a lot harder." \r\nRepublican Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questioned Kumar about the Biden administration opting to suspend a Trump administration-era executive order that restricted the procurement of foreign electrical equipment, which Hawley said resulted in the Trump administration seizing some Chinese transformers in 2020. \r\n"Getting procurement of electric equipment made in China and allowing it to be integrated into our grid is a bad idea," he said. \r\nKumar said the Biden team has taken a holistic view of supply chain security that goes beyond having an approved and unapproved list. \r\n"We\'re taking a more strategic approach to this to ensure we look at security from all different aspects," Kumar said. "It\'s too large of a problem to have one solution, which was the solution in that executive order."\r\nRobert M. Lee, founder and CEO of operational technology cybersecurity firm Dragos, testified that Congress should place more security requirements on the firms serving critical infrastructure providers rather than just the electric utilities themselves. Dragos made the extremely costly decision to have all of its software development done in the U.S. by American citizens since the company\'s software lives in nuclear power plants, and Lee said that should be the rule for all firms in the national security space.\r\nIncentivizing Domestic Transformer Manufacturing\r\nThe transformer industry has come under pressure not only from security risks but also from supply chain issues, which have resulted in development and installation times exceeding 18 weeks for large grid equipment. Despite making up less than 3% of the total transformer base in the U.S., high-voltage transformers carry between 60% and 70% of the nation\'s electricity, said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.\r\nThere is "widespread agreement among government agencies, utilities and manufacturers" that high-voltage transformers in the U.S. are vulnerable to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, "and that such an attack potentially could have catastrophic consequences," Cortez Masto said. \r\nKumar said transformer manufacturers have struggled with obtaining minerals, finding personnel capable of doing the work and meeting heightened production demands stemming from greater electrification. The Energy Department has discussed allocating funds from the Defense Production Act to incentivize the building of transformers in the U.S., said Kumar. \r\n"How do we simplify the production and movement of these big pieces of equipment?" Kumar asked. "Through innovation and R&D, how do we make it easier to build some of these things going forward?" \r\nEnergy officials have also connected with their counterparts in the departments of Labor and Commerce about developing apprenticeship programs to get more people into the trade of building transformers, he said. Officials hopes to reduce production times for large power transformers through standardization, and the Office of Electricity is investigating how transformers could become more modular.\r\n"Supply chain diversity is one of the things we\'re looking at to help manage the risk," said Steve Swick, chief security officer at American Electric Power. "We have agreements where we can share transformers, which allows us to focus on the management of the supply as well as the cyber risk."\n \n

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://circleid.com/posts/20170906_western_energy_sector_targeted_by_sophisticated_cyberattack/

\n \n\t\t\t\tThe Western energy sector is being targeted by a new wave of cyberattacks capable of providing attackers ability to severely disrupt affected operations, according to reports on Wednesday. Symantec Security Response team reports: “The energy sector has become an area of increased interest to cyber attackers over the past two years. Most notably, disruptions to Ukraine\xe2\x80\x99s power system in 2015 and 2016 were attributed to a cyber attack and led to power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of people. ... The Dragonfly group appears to be interested in both learning how energy facilities operate and also gaining access to operational systems themselves, to the extent that the group now potentially has the ability to sabotage or gain control of these systems should it decide to do so.”\n\n— The group behind the attacks is known as Dragonfly: “The group has been in operation since at least 2011 but has re-emerged over the past two years from a quiet period… This ‘Dragonfly 2.0’ campaign, which appears to have begun in late 2015, shares tactics and tools used in earlier campaigns by the group.”\n\n— “The original Dragonfly campaigns now appear to have been a more exploratory phase where the attackers were simply trying to gain access to the networks of targeted organizations. The Dragonfly 2.0 campaigns show how the attackers may be entering into a new phase, with recent campaigns potentially providing them with access to operational systems, access that could be used for more disruptive purposes in future.”\n\n—“The most concerning evidence of this is in their use of screen captures. In one particular instance the attackers used a clear format for naming the screen capture files, [machine description and location].[organization name]. The string ‘cntrl’ (control) is used in many of the machine descriptions, possibly indicating that these machines have access to operational systems.”\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.cybersecurity-review.com/utilities-energy-sector-attacked-mainly-via-it-not-ics/

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https://www.electric.ai/whitepapers/electric-2021-cybersecurity-report

The Electric Research and Insights division surveyed cybersecurity industry professionals to discover the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on cybersecurity and remote work practices at their respective organizations. The research took place in December 2020 to assess how these professionals are dealing with cybersecurity challenges 9+ months into the pandemic. The survey revealed 96% of respondents have made at least some changes to their security strategy as a result of more people working from home during the pandemic. Of those changes, the most common were: – Sharing a guide on cybersecurity and working from home (55%) – Installing the latest patches (44%) – Implementing multi-factor authentication (40%) Access the Full Report to Learn More

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.askcybersecurity.com/cyber-security-news-update-11-19-2018/

The United States Government has accused North Korea as the actor behind the recent hacking of a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange that targeted employee accounts and access codes. The exchange, Coinlink, released their own report stating that there had been no attack of any kind, from anywhere in the world. The group behind this attack is believed to be the Lazarus Group, which was behind two other newsworthy cyberattacks and is believed to be a North Korean black hat hacker group. Initially Lazarus acted as a sort of hit squad, and they did their best to damage websites and infrastructure used by the United States and South Korea. However, as economic sanctions have applied pressure to North Korea, their aim shifted to activities with a better financial return. They’ve attacked several exchanges based in South Korea in an attempt to steal the crypto currency stored there, and if succesful, it’s converted to an untraceable currency like Monero. From there the Monero is used to buy back into other currencies that can be cashed out, which provides millions (if not billions) in funding.Source: US Cybersecurity Agency Accuses North Korea of Cryptocurrency Cyber HeistOnePlus, a China based smartphone manufacturer, confirmed that some 40,000 credit cards have been stolen in a cyberattack. In a statement to the public OnePlus said that the a piece of malignant code had been entered into their software that detected when credit card information was being entered. The code was injected into the server that processed payment requests, and has since been removed by OnePlus. They have quarantined the server until they can be absolutely sure that there are no other malicious pieces of code, a wise precaution considering how damaging the first one was. Consumers brought the issue to OnePlus’s attention, when they found fraudulent charges appearing within days of using their cards on a OnePlus device. OnePlus is working with law enforcement to investigate the issue, and they’re also looking into a more secure payment method.Source: ONEPLUS CONFIRMS CREDIT CARD BREACH IMPACTED UP TO 40,000 CUSTOMERSAn internal surveillance bill has been reapproved that allows for intelligence agencies to spy on US citizens, without a warrant. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, rather ironically, allows for intelligence agencies to spy domestically without supervision. There are arguments that this bill is necessary from both political parties, citing the need for information for anti-terrorism operations. Their argument boils down to warrants adding on too much time, that critical hours may be lost because a judge had to decide if the search was necessary. Opponents of the bill are citing the 4th Amendment, claiming that warrantless surveillance is unconstitutional and violates the protection against unreasonable search and seizure provided by it. Warrantless policing has a time and place, and in dire situations its justified. In those sort of situations however, police are already allowed to act without a warrant. The mass surveillance of citizens is troubling, and also the backdrop for most dystopian novels.Source: OPPONENTS VOW TO CONTINUE THE FIGHT AFTER TRUMP REAUTHORIZES DOMESTIC SPYING LAW

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https://www.bridewell.com/us/insights/white-papers/detail/cyber-security-in-critical-national-infrastructure-organizations-2023

\r\n  39 Questions | 1,025 Respondents | 500 from the US | 500 from the UK |Insights into Aviation, Communications, Energy, Oil and Gas, Financial Services, Government, Transport Current Threat Landscape81% of respondents are worried about the threat of cyber warfare against US critical national infrastructure right now.Between 2022 and 2023, organizations suffered an average of 27 nation-state attacks.Organizations have suffered on average a total of 26 ransomware-related security incidents in the last 12 months.Cyber Budgets and Cyber Maturity73% of CNI organizations are seeing a reduction in their security budgets65% of CNI organizations lack sufficient visibility over all end user devices, networks and systemsOnly 25% of organizations have implemented 24/7 security monitoring on ITDownload the Full Report For More On\xe2\x80\xa6The Current Threat LandscapeRansomware and Ransomware as a Service (RaaS)Insider Threats and \xe2\x80\x98The Human Factor\xe2\x80\x99Threat Intelligence TrendsCyber Resilience and VisibilityAbout the Report\xe2\x80\x9cThe organizations that operate US critical national infrastructure (CNI) continue to show great adaptability and tenacity in the face of evolving cyber risk.However, the threat landscape is keeping pace with progress, making it more  challenging than ever to secure critical systems and services from cyber attack. Download Today\r\n

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https://www.senseofsecurity.com.au/cyber-security-news-wrap-up-1404-2004/

20 Apr Cyber Security News Wrap-up 14/04-20/04 Posted at 17:10h in News by Murray Goldschmidt It’s time for our Weekly Cyber Security Wrap-up. Here are the stories that grabbed our attention this week (14th April-20th April):a) Up to 400 Australian businesses may have been targeted by suspected Russian cyber attacks, which affected millions of machines worldwide. Defence Minister Marise Payne says she doesn’t believe there has been any significant exploitation, and the attacks demonstrate the importance of Australian businesses being vigilant with their cyber security practices.b) Following the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme Report, we spoke to Security Brief about how and why healthcare service providers are the most affected. Jason Edelstein explains in this article by Sara Barker.c) On Tuesday, 34 companies including Microsoft, Oracle and Facebook signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord. The Accord is an agreement which aims to defend the integrity of the 1 trillion connected devices which could be in use within the next 20 years. The 34 tech firms agreed to work on eliminating offensive attacks, strengthening defenses, building capacity and collective action.

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/containing-security

Virtual machines and containers are similar but distinct ways of virtualizing infrastructure to deploy applications. And they have similar but distinct needs for securing those applications.Virtual machines are the most separate and secure method of virtualizing hardware, enforced by hardware. Each virtual machine is an instance of the whole operating system, providing all of the services and consuming all of the necessary resources. VMs talk to each other on the same hardware via network interfaces as if they were separate machines, and they have nothing in common except the bare hardware they run on. Hardware assists for virtualization further isolate the processor resources, physical memory, interrupt management, and data I/O between machine instances. Securing a virtual machine is like securing a physical machine. Security policies, firewalls, and intrusion detection and prevention all see each VM as a separate instance and are configured accordingly.Containers are a hybrid between a single operating system and a virtual machine. Multiple containers run in a single instance of an operating system, but each has its own network stack, file space, and process stack. They also communicate with each other via network interfaces, but they do not yet have hardware assists for hardware-level isolation. With only one version of the operating system, the same hardware will support more containers than virtual machines -- two to five times as many or more, depending on the container requirements. However, containers can be granted additional privileges, accidentally or intentionally, that weaken the walls between containers as well as the underlying operating system.One of the safest features of containers is running them without full root privilege. Applications running in containers should be fully functional without all of the powerful tools available as root privileges such as access to unrestricted disk, network, and process operations. This means that should some malware manage to modify itself to root level within a container, it does not have unrestricted access to the rest of the machine. Similarly, make sure that each container is spawned in its own root directory, without access to the hardware root directory. This restriction, however, is only effective if there are no privilege escalation vulnerabilities in the operating system or container base code.Beware of Security HolesContainers can be configured to expose and share ports and files directly with another container. This is a very useful tool for efficiently passing information between applications, but it opens up a potential security hole. A further recommendation for secure containers is to only run applications on the same machine that you would run without containers. Do not mix data types, privilege levels, or user namespaces across multiple containers on the same machine. Containers provide additional separation between applications and should be considered an additional security measure, not a replacement.Virtualization enabled the cloud-computing revolution. The fact that these environments are isolated at the hardware level creates the perfect environment for multitenant scenarios. Sensitive workloads from two different customers can be running on the same hardware without any compliance or security compromise, keeping customers comfortable with cloud deployments.Containers do not currently provide this level of isolation. The weaker separation between containers creates security and compliance challenges when running workloads from different customers. As a result, it is vital to understand the security implications if you are using containers for multitenant scenarios.The increasing use of containers and other software-defined virtualization tools continues to increase the agility of data center operations. Security configuration and management now needs to match that agility, demonstrating the emerging need for software-defined security, which I will cover in more detail in the next post. 

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.dataprotectionreport.com/2023/04/building-cyber-resiliency-in-the-energy-sector/

\nFor the energy sector, cybersecurity has been a top-of-mind issue for some time. This is particularly true given some of the high-profile cyber-attacks seen in recent years that have grabbed not only media headlines but also resulted in operational disruption, financial losses and legal exposure. The challenge with cybersecurity is attacker tactics are constantly evolving thereby requiring organizations to be constantly vigilant and if possible, one step ahead of the attackers. An added complexity for the energy sector is it\xe2\x80\x99s deemed a \xe2\x80\x9ccritical infrastructure\xe2\x80\x9d by governments \xe2\x80\x93 making it not only an attractive target for criminal cyber gangs, but also sophisticated state-sponsored actors.\nHowever, one thing is clear: organizations that prepare and invest in cyber readiness materially mitigate the negative impacts flowing from a major cybersecurity incident. While everyone agrees it\xe2\x80\x99s not a question of \xe2\x80\x9cif\xe2\x80\x9d but rather \xe2\x80\x9cwhen\xe2\x80\x9d an organization will be a cyber-attack victim, the focus in our view should be on the \xe2\x80\x9chow\xe2\x80\x9d \xe2\x80\x93 meaning how an organization responds.\nBuilding Cyber Resiliency\nThe criticality of the energy sector to society cannot be overstated. In Canada, the energy sector is deemed a \xe2\x80\x9ccritical infrastructure\xe2\x80\x9d (just as in the United States), meaning if it were ever compromised (in part or in its entirety), such an event could have multiple cascading negative effects on other parts of the economy and society more generally. For the energy sector, a cyber-attack could result in immediate operational disruption, impacting upstream and downstream players alike.\nAs organizations focus on the \xe2\x80\x9chow\xe2\x80\x9d to effectively respond to a cyber-attack, the one overarching theme that should underpin their cybersecurity strategy should be building strong cyber resiliency. The term \xe2\x80\x9cresiliency\xe2\x80\x9d is often used to describe an organization\xe2\x80\x99s ability to quickly recover from a significant disruptive event. In the context of cybersecurity, resiliency is measured on two key metrics: firstly, the ability to reduce the \xe2\x80\x9cdowntime\xe2\x80\x9d as much as possible and secondly, to ensure the incident\xe2\x80\x99s \xe2\x80\x9cimpact\xe2\x80\x9d is limited (i.e., the attackers can\xe2\x80\x99t go too deep and cause damage that makes a timely recovery difficult or impossible).\nWhile the concept of resiliency may seem self-evident, it is premised on regular preparation and testing. Studies show a direct correlation between the level of preparation and the severity of the impacts flowing from a significant cybersecurity incident. Organizations that prepare, test and invest regularly will typically recover quicker and experience less impactful negative effects. It should therefore not come as a surprise that the proposed new law tabled by the federal government seeks to ensure organizations in the energy sector are as cyber resilient as they can be.\nWhat Is Bill C-26?\nOver the summer, the Canadian federal government proposed bill C-26 (the \xe2\x80\x9cbill\xe2\x80\x9d), which focuses on cyber threats to critical infrastructure. Among other things, it proposed to enact the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act, which aims to protect against cyber threats to Canadian critical infrastructure. The bill uses the term \xe2\x80\x9ccritical cyber systems\xe2\x80\x9d to include designated services or systems, of interprovincial or international pipelines and power line systems or nuclear energy systems.\nIf passed, the Act will apply to a class of operators who carry on work subject to federal jurisdiction, and the regulator for this class. All operators under this definition must establish a cybersecurity program that meets the four purposes outlined above, and notify and provide the regulator with its program.\nWhat are some of the bill\xe2\x80\x99s key aspects that organizations should pay attention to? We list the top three below:\n\nHaving a Cyber Security Program (\xe2\x80\x9cCSP\xe2\x80\x9d). Organizations must establish and implement cyber security programs that should list their responsibilities (e.g., mitigating supply-chain and third-party risks, reporting cyber security incidents, ensuring compliance with cyber security orders and keeping a record of all relevant actions).\n\nThe CSP must outline reasonable steps to: identify and manage cyber security risks; protect critical cyber systems from being compromised; detect and minimize the impact of cyber security incidents and to do anything prescribed by the regulations. After establishing a cyber security program, designated operators must notify the appropriate regulator, immediately in writing, that their cyber security program is in place and make it available to the regulator.\n\nReporting Cyber Security Incidents. The bill  defines a \xe2\x80\x9ccyber security incident\xe2\x80\x9d as an incident that may interfere with the continuity or security of a vital service or system or the confidentiality, integrity or availability of a vital system. If  a designated operator suspects a cyber security incident has occurred, it is required to immediately report the incident to Canada\xe2\x80\x99s national cryptologic agency, the Communications Security Establishment (the \xe2\x80\x9cCSE\xe2\x80\x9d), followed immediately by notifying the appropriate regulator. In turn, the regulator may request a copy of the incident report from the designated operator or CSE. Unlike most privacy breach reporting obligations, reporting is based on a suspected or actual compromise of critical systems as opposed to the information contained on the critical system.\nCost of Non-Compliance. To promote compliance, organizations that contravene or fail to comply with the bill are subject to enforcement measures and penal consequences, including administrative monetary penalties of up to $1 million per violation for an individual and up to $15 million per violation in any other case. For a continuing or repeated violation, each day of such continuation or repeated activity constitutes a separate violation.\n\nBroadly speaking, the bill mirrors the requirements outlined by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (\xe2\x80\x9cCISA\xe2\x80\x9d) in the United States. This is not surprising given the level of integration between the Canadian and American economies, especially in the energy sector.\nAccordingly, while the bill is before Parliament and not currently law, it is likely to be adopted in 2023 with a coming into force date to be determined.\nWhat Should Businesses Do Now?\nNotwithstanding that the bill is not currently in force, organizations should regardless be reviewing and revising their cybersecurity strategies first and then assessing the sufficiency of their plans. Looking at the US requirements coming from CISA, there is good guidance on what Canadian authorities will be expecting from the organizations in the energy sector going forward. \n\n\n

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/endeavor-powers-secure-computing

MCLEAN, Va. -- Endeavor Security Inc., a security Knowledgebase company, announced today that it will provide prevention signatures to Secure Computing (NASDAQ: SCUR), the global leader in enterprise gateway security, under a multi-year agreement. The new prevention signatures will be included in the SidewinderR 7.0 network gateway appliance and are based on Endeavor's FirstLight component-based signatures.Customers of Secure Computing's Sidewinder appliance line will receive constant signature updates from a Global Attack Grid of sensors. This Early Warning capability will enable customers to receive updates to their Sidewinder signature databases from attacks that are seen in Europe or Asia, before they reach North America. The FirstLight Signature Service offers over 8,000 signatures with the BOT library and malware additions, increasing at approximately 400 signatures per month."When we decided to add signature-based IDS/IPS to our Sidewinder 7.0 Network Gateway Security appliance, we looked for a partner who shares our commitment to balancing cutting-edge technology with time-tested security principles. Endeavor's broad detection grid and unique component-based approach combine to take advantage of habits and trends in the attacker community. By basing their signature development on the behavior of the black hat community, as well as the research of the white hat community, Endeavor helps us provide our Sidewinder customers with highly relevant signature updates much faster than other services," said David Diehl, senior principal engineer, Secure Computing."We deliver an independent source knowledgebase in a format that is tuned for our customer's engine and we couple that with the tools and user interfaces to make it simple and robust. We are excited to be partnered with Secure Computing and to witness the robust combination of a true application layer firewall with our IPS signatures," said Chris Jordan, CEO of Endeavor Security.The key differentiators in the FirstLight Signature offering include:Accuracy - FirstLight Component Based signatures cover the attack Exploit/Vulnerability, but also cover the Infection vector, Payload and Frame;Completeness - FirstLight signatures reference the entire signature set and are constantly reviewing, updating and testing all of the signatures on a global intelligence sensor grid. FirstLight technical analysts "Collect & Run" process produces signatures not captured by the attack grid.Relevancy - FirstLight provides a rating indication as to whether or not a given attack is likely to hit your network, using a global honeynet which tracks occurrences.Timing - FirstLight Early Warning grid detects new events and quickly generates a signature for deployment in seconds. This capability provides our technical analysts more time to validate and test our signatures before distribution.Endeavor SecuritySecure Computing Corp. (Nasdaq: SCUR)

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https://www.bitdefender.com/business/industry-solutions/energy-utilities-cybersecurity.html

Targeted attacks against the energy sector are growing increasingly sophisticated. Bitdefender provides layered energy and utilities cybersecurity solutions that keep diverse infrastructure secure without negative performance impact.

meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

https://www.information-age.com/2-5-industrial-computers-faced-cyber-attack-second-half-2016-5109/

\n\n\t\t\n\t\t \n\t\t \t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\nTwo in five computers in industrial enterprises faced cyber attacks in the second half of 2016, according to research by Kaspersky Lab.\nThe percentage of industrial computers under attack grew from 17% in July 2016 to 24% in December 2016, with the top three sources of infection being the internet, removable storage devices and malicious emails.\nAs the technology and corporate networks of industrial enterprises become increasingly integrated, more and more cybercriminals are turning their attention to industrial enterprises as potential targets.\nBy exploiting\xc2\xa0vulnerabilities in the networks and software used by these enterprises, attackers could steal information related to the production process or even bring down manufacturing operations, leading to technogenic disaster.\n>See also: Industrial Internet of Things under attack\nIn\xc2\xa0the second half of 2016,\xc2\xa0malware downloads and access to phishing pages were blocked on 22% of industrial computers, meaning every fifth machine at least once faced the risk of infection or credential compromise via the internet.\nThe desktop computers of engineers and operators working directly with industrial control systems (ICS) do not usually have direct access to the internet due to the limitations of the technology network in which they are located. However, there are other users that have simultaneous access to the internet and ICS.\nAccording to Kaspersky Lab research, these computers \xe2\x80\x93 presumably used by system and network administrators, developers and integrators of industrial automation systems and third party contractors who connect to technology networks directly or remotely \xe2\x80\x93 can freely connect to the internet because they are not tied to only one industrial network with its inherent limitations.\nThe internet is not the only thing that threatens the cyber security of ICS systems. The danger of infected removable storage devices was another threat spotted by the company\xe2\x80\x99s researchers. During the period of research, 11% of computers with ICS software installed (or connected to computers with ICS software) showed traces of malware when a removable device was connected to them.\nMalicious email attachments and scripts embedded in the body of emails were blocked on 8% of industrial computers, taking third place. In most cases, attackers use phishing emails to attract the user’s attention and disguise malicious files.\nMalware was most often distributed in the format of office documents such as MS Office and PDF files. Using various techniques, the criminals made sure that people downloaded and ran malware on the industrial organisation\xe2\x80\x99s computers.\n>See also: Hand in hand: cyber security and industry 4.0\nMalware, which poses a significant threat to companies around the world, is also dangerous to industrial enterprises, according to Kaspersky\xe2\x80\x99s research. This includes spyware, backdoors, keyloggers, financial malware, ransomware and wipers.\nThese can completely paralyse the organisation\xe2\x80\x99s control over its ICS or can be used for targeted attacks respectively. The latter is possible because of inherent functions that provide an attacker with lots of possibilities for remote control.\n\xe2\x80\x9cOur analysis shows us that\xc2\xa0blind faith in technology networks\xe2\x80\x99 isolation from the internet doesn\xe2\x80\x99t work anymore,\xe2\x80\x9d said Evgeny Goncharov, head of Kaspersky\xe2\x80\x99s critical infrastructure defense department.\n\xe2\x80\x9cThe rise of cyber threats to critical infrastructure indicates that ICS should be properly secured from malware both inside and outside the perimeter. It is also important to note that according to our observations, the attacks almost always start with the weakest link in any protection: people.\xe2\x80\x9d\n\t\n\n\t\n\n\t\n

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https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/eu-tackles-smart-grid-security-for-next-gen-energy/

The EU’s 27 member states have pledged to collectively get to the point of using 20% renewable energy, reduce CO² emissions by 20% and increase energy efficiency by 20% by, you guessed it, 2020. However, to get there requires the migration of the aging legacy utility grid to an IP-based, connected “smart grid” system that can optimize energy production and distribution according to actual consumption requirements. The problem, of course, is the potential for opening the doors to critical infrastructure systems to hackers. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is rushing to be proactive with an exhaustive study entitled, “Appropriate security measures for smart grids: Guidelines to assess the sophistication of security measures implementation.” “The development of an efficient, reliable and sustainable environment for the production and distribution of energy in the future is linked to the use of smart grids,” ENISA noted in the report. “Various market drivers, regulatory or standardization initiatives have appeared or gained importance as tools to help involved stakeholders to be prepared against smart grids security vulnerabilities and attacks.” The perception and the approach taken on this topic differ among stakeholders, ENISA noted, which is prompting it to tackle the creation of a common approach to addressing smart grid cybersecurity measures. The ENISA propositions fall into 10 research areas: Security governance and risk management, management of third parties, secure lifecycle process for smart grid components/systems and operating procedures, personnel security, awareness and training, incident response and information knowledge sharing, audit and accountability, continuity of operations, physical security, information systems security and network security. ENISA also noted that advanced ICT systems are at the core of an effective smart grid implementation. Also industrial control systems (ICS) and related operational technology (OT) need to be taken into account, and all processes across the whole value chain are heavily based on these infrastructures and technologies. “Smart grids give clear advantages and benefits to the whole society, but the dependency on ICT components (e.g. computer networks, intelligent devices, etc.), ICS (e.g. supervisory control and data acquisition systems, distributed control system, etc.), OT (e.g. firmware, operating systems, etc.) and the internet makes our society more vulnerable to malicious attacks with potentially devastating results on smart grids,” said ENISA. “This can happen in particular because vulnerabilities in smart grid related communication networks and information systems may be exploited for financial or political motivation to shut off power to large areas or directing cyber-attacks against power generation plants.” Some say that the US could take a page from the EU’s approach, particularly in the wake of the discovered SCADA vulnerabilities that make industrial info-infrastructure a startlingly vulnerable area. “It\'s a pretty much common knowledge among IT professionals that the state of security within US critical infrastructure systems is laughable,” noted Threatpost blogger Brian Donahue. “So the EU\'s intention to implement security into its smart grid as it is expands is praiseworthy. For our part though, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), America\'s energy watchdog, announced the creation of a new office in September, the Office of Energy Infrastructure Security (OEIS), tasked with identifying, communicating and advising on risks to FERC facilities stemming from cyber attacks and physical attacks.”

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https://www.dataprotectionreport.com/2017/06/new-global-cyberattack-affects-businesses-government-and-infrastructure/

A new strain of malware began infecting computer systems across the globe on Tuesday.  Similar to the WannaCry ransomware that struck last month, the malware used in this week’s attack spreads quickly across multiple computers on a network, encrypting files and displaying a ransom note that requests $300 worth of bitcoin for a decryption key. Reports of infection began in Ukraine, where computer systems belonging to government ministries, financial institutions, transportation systems, and major energy companies began malfunctioning.  The attack was first believed to be caused by a variant of the “Petya” strain of ransomware, however recent reports from security experts indicate that the malware used during this week’s attack was altered so that, even with a decryption key, encrypted files cannot be recovered.  This fact has lead several sources to dub the malware “ExPetr” and speculate that the attacker’s motivations were destructive instead of financial. In addition to targeting organizations through the use of phishing emails, the attacker also reportedly compromised an automatic software update provided by the Ukrainian tax preparation software M.E.Doc in order to deliver the malware. Another WannaCry? Like WannaCry, Petya/ExPetr uses an exploit called “EternalBlue” that the NSA developed as a cyber-spying tool and which was posted publicly by Wikileaks earlier this year.  EternalBlue takes advantage of a weakness in the Microsoft Windows operating system that allows the malware to spread quickly from computer to computer in a network, encrypting files along the way. Microsoft issued a patch for the Windows vulnerability in March 2017.  Then, following the WannaCry attack in May, Microsoft released additional security updates and encouraged all customers to update their systems. Unlike WannaCry, however, Petya/ExPetr is also capable of extracting administrator credentials from a machine’s memory or local filesystem, which may then be used to move to other machines on a network and spread encryption.  This can occur whether or not those other machines have been patched for the EternalBlue vulnerability.  As a result, companies and organizations with only a single unpatched computer would be vulnerable to attack. Also unlike WannaCry, no universal “kill switch” exists to stop the malware from spreading.  In May, during the early hours of the WannaCry outbreak, a computer security researcher discovered that the WannaCry ransomware was communicating out to a nonexistent web URL just before spreading to a new machine on the network.  Once the researcher registered the domain and the URL was live, the ransomware could successfully communicate with the web page and stopped spreading.  Although subsequent strains were altered to remove this code, the initial discovery of the WannaCry kill switch slowed the spread of the attack.  Thus far, no universal kill switch exists to stop the spread of Petya/ExPetr. Ransom Payments Ineffective Once infected, computers display a ransom note demanding $300 in bitcoin and instructing users to contact an email address to obtain the decryption key.  Shortly after the attack began on Tuesday, however, the German email provider for the account took the email address offline, eliminating the possibility of communication with the attacker. Further, security researchers who analyzed the Petya/ExPetr malware found that even if companies were able to communicate with the hacker to obtain a decryption key, the files and systems encrypted during this week’s attack cannot be recovered.  At the time of posting, only 3.99 bitcoins had been paid to the attacker’s bitcoin wallet, which totals approximately $10,300. Known Affected Organizations Kaspersky Lab reports that over 2,000 organizations were targeted in the global attack. Most of the affected organizations are in Ukraine and Russia, but the malware also spread to organizations in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the US, Belarus, Israel and Poland.  The National Cyber Security Center in London issued a statement acknowledging the threat and instructing organizations to review guidance on responding to ransomware. Ukraine appears to the be the hardest hit, with many state-run organizations and government entities reporting system failures and other issues.  Local ministry computers and ATMs for Oschadbank, Ukraine’s state-run bank, displayed the ransom note, while some transportation and metro systems experienced significant delays. The attack also spread to many European and global companies, including international law firm DLA Piper, UK-based advertising firm WPP, and global pharmaceutical company Merck.  The manufacturing industry suffered from several infections, including at the Russian steel manufacturer Evras and Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Antonov. In the energy sector, Russian oil giant Rosneft and its subsidiary Bashneft were affected, forcing the company to move to a reserve oil production system.  Automatic monitoring systems at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were also taken offline by the attack, requiring workers to manually monitor conditions at the plant. Perhaps the most significant global effects of the attack were felt in the shipping industry.  Computer systems at Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk were taken offline, affecting ports and sea shipments around the world.  Port terminals run by various divisions of Maersk in the United States, India, Spain, and the Netherlands experienced massive disruptions to IT systems, delaying deliveries and upsetting supply chains for the entire week. Our Take The Petya/ExPetr attack serves as a reminder that cyberattacks can affect more than just computer systems.  In addition to developing robust cybersecurity policies and procedures, infrastructure, energy and manufacturing companies should also ensure that critical electronic processes and functions may be completed manually in the event of a large-scale cyber event or computer system malfunction.  Also, review our general recommendations regarding legal issues and the response to mass cyber events like the Petya/ExPetr and WannaCry attacks.  Norton Rose Fulbright’s global data protection team is available to assist companies that believe they may be subject to a ransomware attack and to help companies prepare to guard against ransomware and malware attacks. For more information, please visit our website. To subscribe for updates from our Data Protection Report blog, visit the email sign-up page.

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https://www.cybersecurity-review.com/hackers-are-using-this-new-attack-method-to-target-power-companies/

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https://www.logpoint.com/en/blog/critical-infrastructure-cybersecurity-and-the-energy-sector/

This and other energy cyber threat events have led to an overwhelming demand for tighter cybersecurity practices. 86% of EU citizens agree that member countries should cooperate more on cybersecurity to ensure that energy supplies are secure. Energy cybersecurity trends in 2022 There’s a need for greater consideration of energy cyber threats First of all, the energy sector appears to be falling behind when it comes to proactive cybersecurity practices. According to a survey by assurance and risk management firm DNV, just 44% of C-level energy professionals expect to make urgent improvements to prevent a serious attack in the next few years. And 35% said that it would take a serious attack before their company would invest in cybersecurity. Security efforts lack supply chain coordination When energy companies are aware of the need for critical infrastructure cybersecurity, then most are investing in vulnerability discovery (that is, identifying and prioritizing security issues in real-time). What these companies aren’t doing, however, is extending their analysis along the supply chain to procurement and partner organizations. This ultimately leaves openings for attackers to exploit security weaknesses. Companies need to invest in employee training Cybersecurity training is important for a number of reasons. For one, it ensures that employees can identify cyber threats to their company’s systems — and that they can also work to avoid the practices that make them, and the business, vulnerable. Less than a third of respondents to DNV’s survey were confident that they would know how to act on concerns about a potential cyber threat and only 57% found their company’s cybersecurity training to be effective. NIS2 regulations are on the horizon The EU has responded to the gaps in cybersecurity for critical energy infrastructure by introducing a new version of the Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive. NIS2 is expected to be approved by the end of 2022 and all EU member states will be expected to comply by 2024. NIS2 aims to protect the EU’s critical infrastructure from cyber threats and ensure a high level of security across member states. The new directive introduces stricter requirements in three main areas: Increased cyber resilience through measures implemented across all public and private entities that provide essential services. Security and incident reporting obligations as well as the capabilities of member states’ authorities providing national supervision and enforcement to reduce inconsistencies. Improved information sharing and trust between authorities as well as common procedures for large-scale incident response. How to strengthen cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and energy There are several ways in which the energy sector can work on strengthening its defenses against cyber threats over the coming years. These include: Ensuring all employees practice good cyber hygiene through education and training Maintaining awareness of physical and virtual security threats Gaining insights into company-specific cyber threats to stay ahead of attacks Increasing detection with security tools and government collaboration Implementing robust risk management to identify and address vulnerabilities Eliminating communication gaps, particularly between geographic locations and business units Engaging in industry-wide collaboration to identify vulnerabilities and leading-edge technologies Collaborating with supply chain partners to ensure the entire life cycle is secured By identifying opportunities and gaps, implementing robust threat intelligence, conducting regular detailed reviews, and ensuring employees follow best practices, energy companies can develop effective cyber threat intelligence programs that allow them to take advantage of digitalization safely. Logpoint’s cybersecurity solutions monitor events across an energy company’s total security landscape. We do away with siloes and — thanks to this holistic approach — speed up response times when it matters most. Energy sector leaders choose Logpoint’s security solutions to increase the visibility of potential threats across their supply chain and improve their organization’s internal security posture as well. Find out what energy professionals have to say about Logpoint’s suite of software solutions or contact us today.

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https://www.lifars.com/2018/07/russian-hackers-breached-us-power-stations/

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that Russian hackers have breached the control rooms of multiple U.S. power suppliers via remote access.Over “hundreds of victims” have been affected by a ‘giant and long-running’ hacking campaign instigated by Russian hackers who have gained access to control rooms of U.S. electric utilities, granting them the power to initiate mass blackouts, federal officials told the WSJ.“They got to the point where they could have thrown switches” and caused sweeping power flows, said Jonathan Homer, chief of industrial-control-system analysis for DHS, speaking to the publication.The state-sponsored group behind the hackers, known as Energetic Bear or Dragonfly, has been traced back to Russia. DHS officials have been warning utility giants’ executives with security privileges of the Russian group’s threat since 2014. However, a Monday briefing was the first time the agency gave out information in an open, unclassified setting with such detail, the report added.The hackers used emails sent to senior staff for phishing attacks, using them to visit spoofed or hacked social media pages. After gaining access, the groups carried reconnaissance to learn the ways in which power systems and plants worked.Michael Carpenter, former deputy assistant secretary of defense said:“They’ve been intruding into our networks and are positioning themselves for a limited or widespread attack. They are waging a covert war on the West.”Russia has been frequently accused of masterminding attacks against foreign state infrastructure. For instance, Ukraine suffered two attacks on its power grid – one in 2015 and the other in 2016. The first attack impacted 225,000 Ukrainians while the second blackout saw about a fifth of Kiev’s total power consumption disrupted. Both attacks have been linked to Russian state-sponsored hackers.Russia has also been heavily implicated in the alleged hack during the 2016 US presidential elections.Image credit: Pexels.Related Posts

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https://cybersguards.com/growing-mystery-of-suspected-energy-attacks-draws-us-concern/

The Biden administration is under new pressure to answer a question that has perplexed previous administrations: Is an enemy using a microwave or radio wave device to target the brains of US negotiators, spies, and military personnel?The number of confirmed cases of potential attack is rapidly increasing, and politicians from both parties, as well as those who think they have been harmed, are demanding answers. However, scientists and government officials are unsure who was behind the attacks, whether the effects were triggered unwittingly by surveillance devices, or whether the events were actually attacks.Whatever the outcome of the official investigation is, it may have far-reaching implications. Confirmation that a US adversary has been carrying out damaging attacks against US personnel will prompt calls for the US to respond forcefully.For the time being, the administration is assuring the public that it is taking the matter seriously, that it is conducting a thorough investigation, and that those affected will receive adequate medical treatment.Since the first cases affected staff at the US Embassy in Cuba in 2016, the issue has been dubbed the “Havana Syndrome.” According to a US defence official who was not allowed to share information publicly, at least 130 cases across the government are now under investigation, up from a few dozen last year. The inquiry is being led by the National Security Council.Headaches, dizziness, and other symptoms associated with concussions have been identified by those suspected of being affected, with some needing months of medical attention. Some people claim to have heard a loud noise prior to the onset of symptoms. \n At least two possible events in the Washington area have been revealed, including one near the White House in November in which an official experienced dizziness.The New York Times was the first to write on the increased number of potential cases. In November, CNN first reported on the incident near the White House, as well as a separate incident. Advocates for those who have been affected accuse the US government of failing to take the issue seriously for a long time and failing to offer the requisite medical treatment and benefits.Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who represents many people affected, said, \xe2\x80\x9cThe government has a much greater understanding of it than it has let on.\xe2\x80\x9d According to documents obtained by Zaid, the National Security Agency has details dating back to the late 1990s about an unnamed “hostile country” potentially possessing a microwave device that could be used “to disrupt, threaten, or destroy an enemy over time.”During the last months of Trump’s presidency, Chris Miller, the acting defence secretary, formed a Pentagon team to investigate the alleged attacks. That was after he encountered a soldier late last year who reported hearing a “shrieking” sound and then getting a splitting headache while serving in a country Miller wouldn’t name.Miller told The Associated Press, “He was well-trained, highly well-trained, and he’d been in action before.” \xe2\x80\x9cThis is an American, a Department of Defense employee. You can’t ignore it at that point.\xe2\x80\x9dOfficials from the Departments of Defense and Intelligence have previously stated that they would continue to advocate for answers and better treatment for those suffering from symptoms. A Defense Department spokesperson, Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, said the causes of any accidents are “areas of active investigation.” Officials have not named a suspect government, but some people who have been impacted believe Russia is involved.CIA Director William Burns told Congress that the inquiry will be \xe2\x80\x9ca very high priority\xe2\x80\x9d to \xe2\x80\x9censure that my employees get the treatment that they deserve and that we get to the bottom of what caused these injuries and who was responsible.\xe2\x80\x9dBurns is kept up to date on the investigation on a regular basis, which includes staff who have reported cases this year. He, along with other top CIA officials, has met with those who have reported injuries. The agency has sought to shorten the wait time for outpatient care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for its workers.The CIA also replaced its chief medical officer with a doctor who was seen as more sympathetic to potential cases within the organisation.Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year CIA veteran who was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury during a 2017 trip to Russia, said, “We were treated so badly in the past.” \xe2\x80\x9cNow they’re putting people in positions who will not only trust us, but will also fight for our health-care rights.\xe2\x80\x9dThe most likely culprit, according to one key study, is “guided, pulsed radio frequency energy.” A radio frequency attack could alter brain function without causing “gross structural harm,” according to a study published by the National Academy of Sciences in December. However, the panel was unable to reach a conclusive conclusion on how US staff could have been affected.In response to the Havana events, a declassified 2018 State Department study cited “a lack of senior leadership, inadequate communications, and organisational disorganisation.” The cause of the injuries, according to the article, is “still unknown.” The National Security Archive at George Washington University released the text.The CIA’s Havana station was eventually closed, a win for a possible adversary, according to the paper.Dr. James Giordano, a Georgetown University neurology professor, advised the State Department on the Havana cases and has been briefed on recent events in the United States and abroad. In analysing the reports of those who were harmed in Havana, Giordano discovered signs of neurological injuries in many individuals, implying that they were exposed to radio waves.He suspected two possible perpetrators: a system used to target potential victims or a monitoring technique that used guided energy waves and could have accidentally affected the people targeted. Giordano said one of the November attacks outside the White House had “substantial parallels” to the Havana events, but he couldn’t go into detail because he wasn’t allowed by the government to do so.\xe2\x80\x9cFaking or misrepresenting such results to objective clinical tests is extremely difficult, if not impossible,\xe2\x80\x9d Giordano said. \xe2\x80\x9cI mean, you can’t make your nerves do or not do those things.\xe2\x80\x9dOthers, however, are doubtful. Dr. Robert Baloh of the University of California, Los Angeles, argued that scans of healthy people’s brains sometimes reveal mini-strokes, and that any potential weapon would be too massive or powerful to be deployed undetected.According to Baloh, the rising number of cases labelled as guided energy attacks is actually related to a phenomenon known as “mass psychogenic disease,” in which people become ill after learning of others’ symptoms.\xe2\x80\x9cA lot of people are hearing about it, and that’s how it spreads,\xe2\x80\x9d Baloh said.Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to take this issue seriously. On Wednesday, a bill was introduced in both the House and the Senate that would improve the provision of disability insurance for traumatic brain injuries sustained in the accidents.In a statement, Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said, “There is no greater priority than ensuring the health and safety of our citizens, and the anomalous health incidents that have plagued our workers around the world are of grave concern.” The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, said the people who reported symptoms were “apparently subject to assault.”Former CIA officer George Polymeropoulos said he thought the US would eventually figure out what was behind the accidents and who was to blame.\xe2\x80\x9cOn this, actual intelligence will lead us to the truth,\xe2\x80\x9d he said. \xe2\x80\x9cIf we discover that a specific enemy did this, we’ll have to make some difficult decisions.\xe2\x80\x9d

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https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/cyber-security-today-a-look-at-the-future-of-work/431830

\n\nA look at the future of office work\nWelcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Wednesday June 10th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com.\n\n\nWhat is the future of office work? More people than ever are temporarily working from home due to the pandemic. So when the crisis ends will most people go back to work in offices? Can they work at home safely?\nThere’s conflicting evidence. A cybersecurity company called Tessian recently released a survey saying 91 per cent of IT leaders questioned trust their employees will follow security best practices when out of the office. By comparison 48 per cent of employees surveyed admitted they would be less likely to follow safe security practices when working from home. They gave a variety of reasons, including they wouldn’t be using an office computer, they wouldn’t feel like they were being watched by their company’s IT team as they are in the office, they would be distracted at home and because they would be under pressure at home to get work done quickly.\nSeparately, a security firm called CyberArk also released a study suggesting employees working from home may be doing unsafe things. Seventy-seven per cent of employees working from home said they use unmanaged home computers to access corporate systems. Of those who work from home and have corporately-provided computers, 29 per cent admitted they allow other family members to use those computers for non-work related things like schoolwork, gaming and shopping.\nThat might suggest IT departments ought to be glad to get employees back in the office, where they can better control what’s going on online. Not necessarily. During a webcast I tuned into last week the chief information security officers of three Canadian organizations said they expect their firms will continue to urge people to work from home even when the pandemic ends. CISOs are the people who head the cybersecurity teams. The CISO at a hospital said non-medical staff working from home means fewer people risking their health. The CISO of a bank said working from home should be less stressful for staff because they can take a break from work during the day and be with family, or take a jog. A company that rents and sells heavy equipment said a work-from-home policy will allow her to employ skilled people from around the world she hire couldn’t before because they had to be in a city where her firm had an office.\nSo the increase in people working from home seems to be permanent. However, it will mean two things: First, organizations will have to toughen their cybersecurity policies to deal with the increased risks of employees using their own computers. There is management software that allows the IT department to control what applications are on computers that connect to the enterprise and ensure everything has the latest patches. And IT will have to make sure all the applications allowing remote access to the organization are locked down. For their part, employees will have to be smarter and safer using computers from home. Just as bad as an outbreak of an infectious disease is an outbreak of data breaches.\nThat\xe2\x80\x99s it for Cyber Security Today. Links to details about these stories can be found in the text version of each podcast at ITWorldCanada.com. That’s where you’ll also find my news stories aimed at businesses and cybersecurity professionals. Cyber Security Today can be heard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker. Thanks for listening. I\xe2\x80\x99m Howard Solomon\n

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https://www.fsisac.com/newsroom/investmentexecutive-covid19-kickstart-cyber-attacks

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