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☆ Pro-Russia hackers are breaking into critical American and European infrastructure, security agencies warn
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Ella Sherman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Pro-Russia hackers are targeting infrastructure systems in the US and Europe, says a security advisory. Hackers have infiltrated infrastructure sectors in water, dams, energy, and agriculture. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementInfrastructure systems in the US and Europe are vulnerable targets for pro-Russia hackers, numerous security agencies cautioned in a May 1 advisory statement. The agencies observed pro-Russia hackers compromise the operational technology of infrastructure such as "Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS), Dams, Energy, and Food and Agriculture Sectors."

Persons: —, Sandworm Organizations: Service, FBI, Infrastructure Security Agency, Wastewater Systems, Energy, Food, Agriculture, Google, Department of Justice Locations: Russia, Europe, North America, Dams, Texas, Ukraine, South Korea

☆ France Bracing for Cyberattacks During Summer Olympics
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Summer Olympics and tensions over the war in Ukraine are likely to make Paris a tempting target for a variety of hacking attempts, including from adversarial countries, France’s top cybersecurity official said on Monday. French officials, including Mr. Strubel, are in Washington this week for consultations with cybersecurity officials. The Paris Olympics will run from July 26 to Aug. 11. The opening ceremony of the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, was marred by a cyberattack that caused internet disruptions. Security companies quickly blamed Russia, and the Fancy Bear hacking group tied to Moscow’s intelligence services, for that attack.

Persons: Vincent Strubel, France’s, ransomware, Strubel Locations: Ukraine, Washington, Pyeongchang, South Korea, Russia

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A small western Pennsylvania water authority was just one of multiple organizations breached in the United States by Iran-affiliated hackers who targeted a specific industrial control device because it is Israeli-made, U.S. and Israeli authorities say. The group targeted the Unitronics devices at least since Nov. 22, it said. The advisory notes that Unitronics devices ship with a default password, a practice experts discourage as it makes them more vulnerable to hacking. It says the hackers likely accessed affected devices by “exploiting cybersecurity weaknesses, including poor password security and exposure to the internet.”Experts say many water utilities have paid insufficient attention to cybersecurity. Americans must know their drinking water and other basic infrastructure is safe from “nation-state adversaries and terrorist organizations,” U.S. Sens.

Persons: Matthew Mottes, CISA, Unitronics —, John Fetterman, Bob Casey, Chris Deluzio, Av3ngers, Sergey Shykevich, Unitronics, Biden Organizations: FBI, Environmental Protection Agency, Infrastructure Security Agency, Directorate, Associated Press, Municipal Water Authority, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, ”, U.S . Justice Department, U.S . Rep Locations: HARRISBURG, Pa, Pennsylvania, United States, Iran, Israeli, Aliquippa, Israel, Gaza, U.S, Sens, Missouri , Arkansas, Iowa

The Aliquippa water authority's chairman, Matthew Mottes, said federal officials told him that hackers also breached four other utilities and an aquarium. The device breached in Pennsylvania was made by Israel-based Unitronics, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Known as a programmable logic controller, it is used across a wide spectrum of industries including water and sewage-treatment utilities, electric companies and oil and gas producers. Experts say many water utilities have paid insufficient attention to cybersecurity. In Pennsylvania, the hack prompted the water authority to temporarily halt pumping Saturday in a remote station that regulates water pressure for customers in two nearby towns.

Persons: John Fetterman, Bob Casey, Chris Deluzio, ”, ” Fetterman, Casey, Deluzio, General Merrick Garland, “, ‘, Israel ’, Matthew Mottes, We’ve, that’s, ” Mottes, Sergey Shykevich, Unitronics, Crews, Biden Organizations: U.S . Justice Department, U.S . Rep, Municipal Water Authority, Twitter, U.S, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Security Agency, Environmental Protection Agency Locations: HARRISBURG, Pa, Pittsburgh, Sens, Pennsylvania, United States, Israel, Aliquippa , Pennsylvania, Iran, hacktivism, Gaza, U.S, Missouri , Arkansas, Iowa

In another case, a video showed a billboard in the central Israeli city of Holon displaying images of rockets and a burning Israeli flag. Israeli information security professionals are banding together to provide free cybersecurity services to Israeli companies amid a spike in hacktivist activity sparked by the war in Gaza, volunteers said. Ohad Zaidenberg, an Israeli IT specialist, is leading a group of volunteers to help Israeli companies that are being actively targeted. The organizers of the volunteers are drawing the line on members taking vigilante action against Hamas, said Omri Segev Moyal, the chief executive of the Israeli cybersecurity firm Profero. Moyal, who runs a popular Facebook group for Israeli cybersecurity professionals, said he had already removed a couple of posts calling for digital action against the Palestinian group.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, fatigues, Yossi Appleboum, Appleboum, Zoom didn’t, Ohad, ”, Omri Segev Moyal, Moyal, Profero, “, Raphael Satter, Christopher Bing, James Pearson, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Palestinian, Hamas, REUTERS, Reuters, Telegram, Thomson Locations: Israel, New York City, U.S, LONDON, Holon, Gaza, Israel's, Israeli, Washington, London

A hooded man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 10 (Reuters) - Hacktivist groups say they are hitting Israeli targets online amid the war in Israel and Gaza, disrupting and defacing websites like the Jerusalem Post. The conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors routinely attracts both intense global interest and politically minded hackers - dubbed hacktivists - who piggyback on the fighting, either to support their favored side or simply get attention. "There are dozens of victims per day, claimed by both pre-established and new (hacktivist) groups," cyber intelligence firm Recorded Future said. Examples of serious or long-term damage are still thin, but the activism shows how a subset of supporters use digital tools to bring the war online.

Persons: Kacper, Avi Mayer, hacktivists, Omri Segev Moyal, Israel, Profero, Christopher Bing, Raphael Satter, Zeba Siddiqui, Chris Sanders, Sonali Paul Organizations: REUTERS, CERT, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Israel, Gaza, Jerusalem, Ukraine, Iranian, Washington, San Francisco

BELFAST, April 19 (Reuters) - The UK government's cyber defence agency warned on Wednesday of an emerging threat to Western critical national infrastructure posed by hackers sympathetic to Russia and its war on Ukraine. Russia-aligned "hacktivists" have carried out largely harmless online campaigns that have defaced prominent public websites or knocked them offline. "Some have stated a desire to achieve a more disruptive and destructive impact against western critical national infrastructure, including in the UK," the NCSC said. Although such groups are ideologically-motivated and align themselves with Russian state interests, they are "not subject to formal state control," the alert said. A successful cyberattack on critical national infrastructure such as an energy grid or water supply could be highly destructive, and do serious real-world damage.

☆ Websites of several German airports down
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The websites of at least three German airports were disrupted on Thursday, a day after a major IT failure at Lufthansa left thousands of passengers stranded at Frankfurt airport. Among the airports affected were Dusseldorf, Nuremberg and Dortmund, but sites for Germany's biggest airports, in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin, were operating normally. Focus Online, which initially reported the outage, gave no reason for the problem. "We are troubleshooting", said a spokesperson for Dortmund airport, adding it was unlikely that the failure was due to a regular overload. Reporting by Klaus Lauer Writing by Miranda Murray Editing by Madeline ChambersOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russian 'hacktivists' briefly knock German websites offline
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Russian activist hackers knocked several German websites offline on Wednesday in response to Berlin's decision to send tanks to Ukraine, although Germany's BSI cyber agency said the digital blitz had little tangible effect. Hacking group Killnet said it was targeting government websites, banks and airports with a coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) campaign, a relatively unsophisticated attack which works by directing high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers in order to knock them offline. Killnet is a self-proclaimed Russian "hacktivist" group that has actively targeted opponents of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant previously reported that Killnet is associated with another Russian hacktivist group, Xaknet, which claims it breached numerous Ukrainian organisations. Xaknet is likely connected to Russian intelligence services, Mandiant said.

REUTERS/Yves HermanSummary Attack followed EU declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorismBRUSSELS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The European Parliament's website was unavailable for several hours on Wednesday due to a denial-of-service attack by "Pro-Kremlin" hackers, after its lawmakers designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, the institute's president said. The parliament's website was up again shortly after 1700 GMT, around two hours after the institution had reported the outage. "The European Parliament is under a sophisticated cyberattack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility," European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in a tweet shortly after the website went down. The move is largely symbolic, as the European Union does not have a legal framework in place to back it up.

States are working to shore up what might be the most public and vulnerable parts of their election systems: the websites that publish voting results. One of its victims last month was Hawaii.gov, which also hosts the state’s election night reporting. That means avoiding even the perception of hackers’ changing votes, which makes election results websites all the more crucial. Historically, election results websites have been ripe targets for malicious hackers who want to sow chaos. Some U.S. officials emphasized that even accurate results on websites should be taken for what they are — preliminary indications of election results.

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