According to the Ukraine’s national power company Ukrenergo, blackout in Kiev was due to cyber attack. Initial reports suggested that workstations and SCADA systems at a 330-kilowatt substation were attacked by hackers. The Company didn’t mention the source from which the attack originated.
“The analysis of the impact of symptoms on the initial data of these systems indicates a premeditated and multi-level invasion,” Ukrenergo said.
“The attackers actually attacked more but couldn’t achieve all their goals.” Said Honeywell lead cyber security researcher Marina Krotofil.
Marina said that the attackers hid in the network for six months. She added, “The team involved had quite a few people working in it, with very serious tools and an engineer who understands the power infrastructure.”
In 2015, a similar attack was attributed to Russian hackers. It affected 225,000 people in western Ukraine while damaging power distribution equipment.
“Cyber attacks that cripple critical infrastructures continue to grow at a rapid pace — the repeated attacks on power plants in Ukraine, resulting in a loss of power to hundreds of thousands, [are] just the latest example,” Dtex Systems CEO Christy Wyatt told eSecurity Planet by email.
“It is crucial for all public and private sector organizations to focus on not only mitigating these attacks, but preventing nation state actors from gaining access to their networks in the first place,” Wyatt added.
Recent Survey Tripwire of 200 IT professionals working for governments has below findings –
Ninety-eight percent believe smart cities are at risk for cyber attacks
Thirty-eight percent said smart grids have the greater cyber security risks
Twenty percent said they have smart city initiatives
Fifty-five percent says they don’t have enough cybersecurity resources
“Security isn’t usually glamorous, and it can be difficult to sell the need for added time and cost on a project, even when it’s to ensure that services are secure,” Tripwire senior director of IT security and risk strategy Tim Erlin said in a statement. “Smart city initiatives are pushing the technological envelope for urban infrastructure management, and it’s clear from the survey results that cyber security is being left out of the conversation.”
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