A UK cybersecurity authority has issued a warning about hackers targeting the country’s energy sector, and says that some industrial control system organizations are likely to have been successfully compromised, according to a copy of the document obtained by Motherboard. The warning comes at the same time as an anonymously-sourced report from The Times stating that suspected Russian military hackers sent emails designed to trick engineers at an Irish energy organization. At the end of June, the US government warned businesses of hackers targeting nuclear and energy firms as well.
Motherboard 17th July 2017 read more »
Hackers backed by the Russian government have attacked energy networks running the national grid in parts of the UK, The Times has learnt. The hackers, who targeted the Republic of Ireland’s energy sector, intended to infiltrate control systems, security analysts believe. This would also have given them the power to knock out parts of the grid in Northern Ireland. Senior engineers at Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) were targeted last month by a group understood to have ties to the Kremlin’s GRU intelligence agency. The hackers sent emails designed to trick staff by drawing on extensive surveillance of ESB practices and contained malicious software. There is no evidence of disruption to the network, but security analysts monitoring Russia’s cyberintelligence groups said that the hackers probably stole information including passwords. Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre confirmed that it was working on the matter.
Times 15th July 2017 read more »