US issues public warning, says hackers targeting nuclear, energy and industrial firms

The US government has warned that sophisticated hackers have been targeting nuclear, energy, water, aviation and other critical industrial firms since at least May 2017.

In a rare public warning, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a report that threat actors have been using spear-phishing emails, watering hole attacks and malicious websites to obtain the credentials necessary to access and infiltrate networks.

The joint report says the phishing campaign targets two types of victims – staging and intended targets. Hackers first zero in on the “staging targets” which include third-party and peripheral organisations that are tied to the primary targets and have less secure networks.

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These staging targets are then used by the threat actors as “pivot points and malware repositories” to attack the primary companies.

According to the DHS, threat actors are attempting to gain access to specific information regarding the targeted companies’ equipment and organisational designs and “control system capabilities” in order to infiltrate and harm the firm’s networks.

The report noted that hackers have already successfully managed to compromise some targeted networks including one energy generator and conducted reconnaissance on their networks. However, the report did not name the companies targeted in these attacks.

 

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