Foreign cyber attack hits US infrastructure… VIP!
~good job seeker401…they have already pulled the article!!!
A cyber strike launched from outside the United States hit a public water system in the Midwestern state of Illinois, an infrastructure control systems expert said on Friday.
“This is arguably the first case where we have had a hack of critical infrastructure from outside the United States that caused damage,” Applied Control Solutions managing partner Joseph Weiss told AFP.
“That is what is so big about this,” he continued. “They could have done anything because they had access to the master station.”
The Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center disclosed the cyber assault on a public water facility outside the city of Springfield last week but attackers gained access to the system months earlier, Weiss said.
The network breach was exposed after cyber intruders burned out a pump.
“No one realized the hackers were in there until they started turning on and off the pump,” according to Weiss.
The attack was reportedly traced to a computer in Russia and took advantage of account passwords stolen during a hack of a US company that makes Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software.
There are about a dozen or so firms that make SCADA software, which is used around the world to control machines in industrial facilities ranging from factories and oil rigs to nuclear power and sewage plants.
Stealing passwords and account names from a SCADA software company was, in essence, swiping keys to networks of facilities using the programs to control operations.
“We don’t know how many other SCADA systems have been compromised because they don’t really have cyber forensics,” said Weiss, who is based in California.
The US Department of Homeland Security has downplayed the Illinois cyber attack in public reports, stating that it had seen no evidence indicating a threat to public safety but was investigating the situation.
Word also circulated on Friday that a water supply network in Texas might have been breached in a cyber attack, according to McAfee Labs security research director David Marcus.
“My gut tells me that there is greater targeting and wider compromise than we know about,” Marcus said in a blog post.
“Does this mean that I think it is cyber-Armageddon time?” Marcus continued. “No, but it is certainly prudent to evaluate our systems and ask some questions.”
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did this get much media time?
“”They could have done anything because they had access to the master station.”
and traced to russia..of course..wonder if they have heard of proxys..just becuase its traced to russia doesnt mean it came from there..
401
Federal investigators are looking into a report that hackers managed to remotely shut down a utility’s water pump in central Illinois last week, in what could be the first known foreign cyber attack on an industrial system on U.S. soil.
The Nov. 8 incident was described in a one-page report from the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, according to Joe Weiss, a prominent expert on protecting infrastructure from cyber attacks.
State police investigators believe the hackers broke into the water utility’s network by using credentials stolen from an undisclosed U.S. company that produces software to control industrial systems, said Weiss, who read excerpts from the report to Reuters over the phone.
“An information technology services and computer repair company checked the computer logs of the system and determined the computer had been hacked into from a computer located in Russia,” Weiss said, quoting the report.
Illinois State police spokeswoman Monique Bond declined to comment.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are examining the matter, said DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard.
“At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety,” he said, declining to elaborate further.
Several media reports identified the location of the attack as Springfield, the Illinois state capital. City officials said that was inaccurate but would not say where the water pump was located. The FBI spokesman handling the matter could not be reached.
Quoting from the one-page report, Weiss said it was not yet clear whether other networks had been hacked as a result of the breach at the U.S. software maker.
He said the manufacturer of that software keeps login credentials to the networks of its customers so that its staff can help them support those systems.
Workers at the targeted utility in central Illinois on Nov. 8 noticed problems with the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA), which manages the water supply system, and discovered that a water pump had been damaged, said Weiss, managing partner of Applied Control Solutions in Cupertino, California.
“It is unknown at this time the number of SCADA user names and passwords acquired from the software company’s database and if any other additional SCADA systems have been attacked as a result of this theft,” Weiss cited the report as saying.
Related articles
- Foreign cyber attack hits US infrastructure: expert (alternet.org)
- Water Utility Hacked: Are Our SCADA Systems at Risk? (pcworld.com)
- Cyber attack targets Illinois water station, damages water pump (digitaltrends.com)
- U.S. Investigates Potential Cyber Attack on Water System (foxnews.com)
- U.S. probes cyber attack on water system (msnbc.msn.com)
