Safeguarding the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure

In May of 1998, President Clinton issued Presidential Decision Directive 63: Protecting America’s Critical Infrastructures. This Directive proposed steps to enact the recommendations of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, published in October 1997. Twenty years on, h...

Using Hacked IoT Devices to Disrupt the Power Grid

This is really interesting research: "BlackIoT: IoT Botnet of High Wattage Devices Can Disrupt the Power Grid": Abstract: We demonstrate that an Internet of Things IoT botnet of high wattage devices -- such as air conditioners and heaters -- gives a unique ability to adversaries to launch...

BlackIoT Botnet: Can Water Heaters, Washers Bring Down the Power Grid?

We live in a world where washing machines text us when a load of laundry is finished and refrigerators can email grocery lists; but for all the convenience, it turns out that these high-wattage appliances can potentially be marshaled into something very inconvenient indeed: A wide-scale attack on...

The Aurora Power Grid Vulnerability and the BlackEnergy Trojan

At recent Industrial IoT security briefings, the Aurora vulnerability has come up repeatedly. Attendees ask, “Is our country’s power grid safe? How can we protect the grid? What is Aurora?” This post provides a look at Aurora, and the BlackEnergy attack that can exploit Aurora. In March 2007, the...

Ukraine Police Warns of New NotPetya-Style Large Scale CyberAttack

Remember NotPetya? The Ransomware that shut down thousands of businesses, organisations and banks in Ukraine as well as different parts of Europe in June this year. Now, Ukrainian government authorities are once again warning its citizens to brace themselves for next wave of "large-scale"...

From BlackEnergy to ExPetr

Much has been written about the recent ExPetr/NotPetya/Nyetya/Petya outbreak - you can read our findings here:Schroedinger's Petya and ExPetr is a wiper, not ransomware. As in the case of Wannacry, attribution is very difficult and finding links with previously known malware is challenging. In th...

This Week in Security News

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. Below you’ll find a quick recap of topics followed by links to news articles and/or our blog posts providing additional insight. Be sure to check back...

What is Defcon

The first year I attended, I was lucky enough to identify interesting wireless signals with a distinct sound - that of the POCSAG and FLEX protocols. Decoding these signals revealed party invites to the Telephreak party where I listened to raw, uncensored lightning talks covering topics from car...

Eaton ELCSoft Programming Software Memory Vulnerabilities

OVERVIEW Ariele Calgaviano working with Zero Day Initiative has identified a heap-based memory corruption vulnerability and a stack buffer overflow vulnerability in Eaton’s ELCSoft programming software. Eaton has released a revision to mitigate these vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities could b...

Power Grid Honeypot Puts Face on Attacks

TENERIFE, Spain –The rhetoric around hacking the power grid would have you believe it’s a relatively mundane practice. Policymakers, intelligence agencies and vendors, for example, spread the word gleefully, leaning on scenarios such as state-sponsored hackers shutting off the lights in the dead ...

Israeli Power Grid Authority Suffers Massive Cyber Attack

The country which built a Digital Iron Dome, Israel had undergone one of the largest serious cyber attack this year. This time, the name of Israel is being popped up in the current headlines is for the massive cyber attack which triggered against the Nation's Electrical Power Grid Authority's...

The Triumphant Finale of CSI: Cyber

It’s been a couple of months since we left our heroes on CSI: Cyber, and boy, have they been busy. They have apparently solved many crimes using cyber-sleuthing, acquired some decidedly non-cyber firearms skills, and, in the case of our man Krumitz, taken up running. We wanted to check in and see...

Government, Industry Focusing on Issue of Resiliency

WASHINGTON–As things stand right now, the United States has no overarching national information security policy or centralized agency responsible for defending the government’s networks in the event of a serious cyberattack. There have been many pushes over the years to change that and put one...

Stuxnet-like 'Havex' Malware Strikes European SCADA Systems

Security researchers have uncovered a new Stuxnet like malware, named as “Havex”, which was used in a number of previous cyber attacks against organizations in the energy sector. Just like Famous Stuxnet Worm, which was specially designed to sabotage the Iranian nuclear project, the new trojan...

Iranian Hackers targeting US oil, gas, and electric companies

For all the talk about China and the Syrian Electronic Army, it seems there's another threat to U.S. cyber interests i.e Iran. Series of potentially destructive computer attacks that have been targeting American oil, gas and electricity companies tracked back to Iran. Iranian hackers were able to...

Iranian Hackers targeting US oil, gas, and electric companies

For all the talk about China and the Syrian Electronic Army, it seems there's another threat to U.S. cyber interests i.e Iran. Series of potentially destructive computer attacks that have been targeting American oil, gas and electricity companies tracked back to Iran. Iranian hackers were able to...

ENISA Outlines Security Regulations for EU Smart Grid Expansion

The European Union has set a series of ambitious goals for itself: by 2020, the 27 member states expect to collectively use 20 percent renewable energy, reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent, and increase energy efficiency by 20 percent. In order to accomplish these goals, Europe will need to perfor...

U.S. Needs Cybersecurity Skunk Works, Expert Says

ARLINGTON, VA–In order to address the fundamental questions surrounding the concept of cyberwar and what it might mean for both the government and the enterprise, the United States should develop a skunk works-type think tank comprising highly skilled private-sector security experts as well as...

Researchers Find Security Flaws in 'Smart' Meters

Computer-security researchers say new “smart” meters that are designed to help deliver electricity more efficiently also have flaws that could let hackers tamper with the power grid in previously impossible ways. At the very least, the vulnerabilities open the door for attackers to jack up...

Privacy Concerns Raised About Smart Grids

Technologists already are worried about the security implications of linking nearly all elements of the U.S. power grid to the public Internet. Now, privacy experts are warning that the so-called “smart grid” efforts could usher in a new class of concerns, as utilities begin collecting more...