The good news is that all the attacks carried out by the Xenotime group failed into breaching the targeted organization. Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts. This isnt our fault, but if we reuse those passwords, we risk creating a vulnerability that a hacker who has seen those databases can exploit. Alternatively, people should employ password managers that will randomly generate a password. A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Dont trust emails and passwords [as the only method of defense.] Though the government and regulators increasingly push patching requirements and a focus on addressing flaws, Lee said it is misaligned with the risk and nature of those vulnerabilities. CHERNOVITE Security Researchers Reveal Staggering Magnitude of ICS Vulnerabilities ICS/SCADA threats and threat actors | Infosec Resources Based on Dragos' analysis, Lee said Kostovite was getting long-term access for future disruptive actions. Most notably, Dragos discovered a growing concern over ransomware attacks, particularly against the manufacturing sector. 2021 shows 389 ICS-CERT advisories, this is over 100 more than 2020's 249 advisories, showing the largest year-to-year growth in the history of the program. Organizations that deploy PCs need a strong and clear policy to handle hardware maintenance, end of life decisions, sustainable With all the recent name changes with Microsoft's endpoint management products and add-ons, IT teams need to know what Intune Macs are known for their security, but that doesn't mean they're safe from viruses and other threats. A wave of layoffs, coupled with increased recruitment efforts by cybercriminals, could create the perfect conditions for insider threats to flourish, Cyber Insights 2023 | ICS and Operational Technology, Dragos ICS/OT Cybersecurity Year in Review 2022 report, New Dragos OT-CERT Provides Free Industrial Cybersecurity Resources, Cybersecurity Experts Cast Doubt on Hackers ICS Ransomware Claims, In Other News: Government Use of Spyware, New Industrial Security Tools, Japan Router Hack, Apple Denies Helping US Government Hack Russian iPhones, Zero-Day in MOVEit File Transfer Software Exploited to Steal Data From Organizations, Russia Blames US Intelligence for iOS Zero-Click Attacks, Cisco Acquiring Armorblox for Predictive and Generative AI Technology, Moxa Patches MXsecurity Vulnerabilities That Could Be Exploited in OT Attacks, Organizations Warned of Salesforce Ghost Sites Exposing Sensitive Information, Organizations Warned of Backdoor Feature in Hundreds of Gigabyte Motherboards, Insider Q&A: Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity In Military Tech, OpenAI Unveils Million-Dollar Cybersecurity Grant Program, Galvanick Banks $10 Million for Industrial XDR Technology, Information of 2.5M People Stolen in Ransomware Attack at Massachusetts Health Insurer, US, South Korea Detail North Koreas Social Engineering Techniques, High-Severity Vulnerabilities Patched in Splunk Enterprise, Idaho Hospitals Working to Resume Full Operations After Cyberattack. "Of the advisories that Dragos tracked in 2021 that did not initially have a patch, 92 percent had no mitigation and 96 percent had no alternate mitigation," the report said. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. ) In 2018, security experts from theindustrial cybersecurity firm Dragos warnedof another threat actor tracked as Allanite that was targeting business and industrial control networks at electric utilities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Why Are Industrial Control System (ICS) Attacks Increasing? (Matt Wilson), Regardless of the use case your security organization is focused on, youll likely waste time and resources and make poor decisions if you dont start with understanding your threat landscape. Andrew Ginter January 25, 2018 A chronic complaint of industrial control system (ICS) security practitioners is under-funding, and funding decisions for security programs are frequently made by business decision-makers with a limited understanding of cybersecurity and cyber risk issues. Protecting our Nations critical infrastructure is the responsibility of federal and state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments and owners and operators of that infrastructure. These apps were invented more recently and with security in mind. Serial to Ethernet Converters/Gateways and Serial Device Servers are extensively used technology in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to enable remote communications and monitor equipment that supports serial interfaces such as RS-232, RS-485, and so on. This is known as a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Identified as CVE-2023-2825, the issue exists in community and enterprise editions of GitLab running version 16.0.0, while prior . The connection to intranets and communication networks has increased their surface of attacks. Vulnerabilities that can affect industrial control system (ICS) environments are identified to the public through advisories by the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT). Brizinov noted that hackers usually try to access ICS systems for either political or financial reasons. Fortunately, the number of high or critical flaws decreased compared with data in H1 2020, likely because researchers and vendors have spent a significant effort in searching for vulnerabilities in ICSs and address them. All Rights Reserved. The company has been tracking a total of 57 groups, including 39 that were active in 2022, 30% more than in 2021. The Hexane group has been active since at least the middle of 2018, it intensified its activity since early 2019 with an escalation of tensions within theMiddle East. These alerts and advisories contain information on historical cyber-intrusion campaigns that have targeted ICS: CISA urges critical infrastructure owners and operators to review the publications listed above and apply the mitigations in Joint CISA-FBI CSA AA21-201A: Gas Pipeline Intrusion Campaign, 2011-2013. Other specific motivations for hacking an ICS system might include influencing a manufacturing process, obtaining sensitive data, reading a secret recipe, or modifying a PLC configuration. A chronic complaint of industrial control system (ICS) security practitioners is under-funding, and funding decisions for security programs are frequently made by business decision-makers with a limited understanding of cybersecurity and cyber risk issues. software searching a machines memory and hard drive for keys. Dragos has been tracking 20 threat groups that have targeted industrial organizations, eight of which were active in 2022. PDF NCCIC ICS Fact Sheet NCCIC ICS - CISA An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted areas of the system without authorization, potentially with malicious intent. In addition, the existence of Industroyer2 came to light last year. How to write an RFP for a software purchase, with template. Check out our free e-newsletters to read more great articles.. 2023 Automation.com, a subsidiary of ISA, A subsidiary of the International Society of Automation, Do Not Sell My Information - California Residents Only. Official websites use .gov While compiling the report, Dragos found that ransomware became the "number one cause for compromises in the industrial sector." When the WannaCry ransomware was activated in May 2017, tens of thousands of systems that werent running the latest Microsoft security patches were immediately caught in its grip. Cyble Critical Vulnerabilities in Serial-to-Ethernet Devices Got a confidential news tip? One could postulate an attack that physically steals the password dongle, but that would no longer be a phishing attack. There is no doubt that AI will bring massive benefits to cybersecurity. U.S. President Joe Bidens May 2021 Executive Order, Improving the Nations Cybersecurity, specifically addressed the rise in supply chain attacks. Those risky connections are one reason Lee said contributed to President Biden's push for further visibility into operations environments. Critical infrastructure Critical security concerns facing the energy & utility industry May 18, 2020 by Susan Morrow A perfect storm of technical & human vulnerabilities The global dependency and wide use of utility companies makes the system highly vulnerable to both natural and human-made disasters. In total, seven pieces of ICS malware have been discovered to date, including Stuxnet, Havex, BlackEnergy2, CrashOverride, and Trisis. The group is not involved in sabotage operations, it focuses on information gathering and reconnaissance activities. April is National Supply Chain Integrity Month For those that are unaware of Dymalloy APT, the threat actor wasdiscoveredby Dragos researchers while investigating the Dragonflys operations. Instead, he advised defenders to focus on the common tactics, techniques and behaviors of the two primary groups responsible for attacks last year, Conti and LockBit 2.0, and to engage in detection and preventive work against the two strains. However, the employee was initially unconcerned because the team frequently employed remote-access software TeamViewer to share screens. When teams have a way to break down enterprise silos and see and understand what is happening, they can improve protection across their increasingly dispersed and diverse environment. In October 2018, FireEye expertsdiscovereda link between the Triton malware, tracked by the company asTEMP.Veles,and the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (CNIIHM), that is a Russian government research institute in Moscow. The groups service was used to trigger two of the most severe ransomware attacks of the yearthe Colonial Pipeline and Kaseya supply chain attacks. If you see something, say something.. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Whether it was intentional or not, it did cause disruption to those environments. Technical Alert: TA17-163A: CrashOverride Malware. Visibility and monitoring of open source vulnerabilities for SecOps. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS To support this approach to communicating and assessing risk, Waterfall practitioners have proposed twenty useful examples of cyber attacks on industrial control system networks. We describe the simplest attacks not reliably defeated, and consequences, and ask if this situation is acceptable. Hackers can use around 70% of these flaws to access systems remotely. (Torsten George), With proactive steps to move toward Zero Trust, technology leaders can leverage an old, yet new, idea that must become the security norm. A large percentage of those vulnerabilities were both remotely exploitable and classified as either critical or high risk. Basically, being extraordinarily stealthy," Lee said during the media preview. ICS-CERT advisories are published when an ICS vulnerability is released that attackers could use to cause harm, and most ICS-CERT advisories will contain multiple related vulnerabilities. The Top 20 Cyberattacks on ICS | Andrew Ginter - Waterfall Security The gateways are physically able to send information in only one direction from an ICS network to an IT/corporate/Internet network, with no ability to send information back. "During 2021, cyber risk to industrial sectors grew and accelerated largely led by ransomware," the report said. The Colonial Pipeline incident, resulting in a US $4.4 payout to attackers, was conducted using DarkSides RaaS platform. 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Well look into the sectors affected and their risk levels. 637 . ", The future of ransomware attacks against critical infrastructures is looking dim, according to the report. 2021s timeline overview of major OT and ICS cyber incidents shows that modern criminal operations have become so developed that a service industry has emerged with a common business model Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS). ICS-CERT advisories affecting ICS environments show - Industrial Cyber The situation is worrisome if we consider that over 70% of the issues were rated as high or critical Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scores. The ICS-related CVEs identified in advisories show what can be a link between years in which there were major ICS cyber threats and the number of CVEs identified in advisories. While the Colonial Pipeline attack affected only IT systems, and the FBI seized back a portion of the ransom paid by the company, it represented an increasing threat to ICS and OT environments. Otorio has released a free tool that organizations can use to detect and address issues related to DCOM authentication. Vulnerabilities in the operating systems and software, improper network segmentation, misconfigurations, are some of the most common attack vectors. associated with Dragonfly bythe DHS in July 2017. Remote connectivity has become essential especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, in many cases engineers and employees of organizations managing ICS and SCADA systems would require remote access to interact with devices deployed in field avoiding to visit in person. Over 600 ICS Vulnerabilities Disclosed in First Half of 2021: Report The attack was discovered after a SIS triggered a shutdown of some industrial systems, which experts believe hackers caused by accident. The experts linked the campaigns conducted by the, , to a threat actors they tracked as Allanite., For those that are unaware of Dymalloy APT, the threat actor was, by Dragos researchers while investigating the Dragonflys operations. 80.85% of vulnerabilities . Top 25 ICS Vulnerabilities - Automation.com Securityweeks CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for todays security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise. ICS Vulnerabilities Affecting Energy, Critical Manufacturing - ITEGRITI As typical in recent years, these advisories regularly placed a high focus on security awareness education and increased cybersecurity preparation. Copyright 2023 SecurityWeek , a Wired Business Media Publication. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Dragos predicted that there would be an increase in attacks targeting operational technology (OT) systems at US organizations in the energy sector. Some of these effects include operational shutdowns, damaged equipment, financial loss, intellectual property theft, and substantial health and safety risks. Two of those gangs, Conti and LockBit 2.0, were responsible for the majority of 2021 ransomware attacks. The most targeted manufacturing subsectors were metal products, automotive, electronics, building materials, industrial equipment and supplies, and plastics. In part two of the series, well further discuss ICS vulnerabilities using MITRE ATT&CK. More advanced destructive supply chain attacks also came to the surface this year. Emerging groups weren't the only threat to ICS and OT. TPM hardware is designed such that encryption keys never leave the hardware modules, or appear in memory in the computer running the TPM. These systems are high-value targets for threat actors that aims at disrupt business operations and processes for extortion or sabotage purposes. Ongoing problems with patching and vulnerabilities also contributed to the security problem. FBI, CISA, and NSA Reveal How Hackers Targeted a Defense Industrial The reality is that all the different operations and IT networks are connected, Lee said, and most of them are connected to other people's IT networks, like an operations and maintenance provider. The global instability and increase in remote work caused by the pandemic have played a role in raising the salience of ICS cybersecurity issues. Read time: ( words). (Derek Manky). Potential Attack Vectors on Critical National Infrastructure Introduction. While there were too many incidents to choose from, here is a list of . Ransomware posed one of the biggest risks to the industrial sector throughout 2021, according to a new report by Dragos Inc. These top 20 attacks represent cyber threats to industrial sites across a wide range of circumstances, consequences and sophistication, and include both attacks that are reliably defeated by common cyber defenses as well as attacks that are not so reliably defeated. To understand more about the Top 20 attacks, their level of sophistication and their consequences, click here to view the full whitepaper from Waterfall Security. This highlights the importance of protecting internet-facing ICS devices and remote access connections. systemsplay a critical role in critical infrastructure and industrial sector. Dragos has been keeping track of security advisories containing incorrect data and found that 34% of the ones published in 2022 were in this category. Another group targeting ICS networks is a North Korea-linked APT tracked as COVELLITE, which has been linked to theLazarus APT Group. These attacks can result in bad press and government fines. The, APT group is allegedly linked to Russian intelligence and it is believed to be responsible for the, published by the DHS in October 2017 suggests a link between Dragonfly attacks with Allanite operations, Dragos experts highlighted that Allanite operations present similarities with the. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedias security news reporter. Perhaps they want to infiltrate a specific factory to steal secrets or implant cybersecurity warfare like malware, for example, he said. remotely exploitable), and 89.98% of them dont require special conditions to be triggered.