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Ransomware Virus Shuts Down Electric and Water Utility

Ransomware Virus Shuts Down Electric and Water Utility

Apr 29, 2016
Ransomware has become an albatross around the neck, targeting businesses, hospitals , and personal computers worldwide and extorting Millions of Dollars . Typical Ransomware targets victim's computer encrypts files on it, and then demands a ransom -- typically about $500 in Bitcoin -- in exchange for a key that will decrypt the files. Guess what could be the next target of ransomware malware? Everything that is connected to the Internet. There is a huge range of potential targets, from the pacemaker to cars to Internet of the Things, that may provide an opportunity for cybercriminals to launch ransomware attacks. Recently, the American public utility Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) has announced that the company has become a victim of Ransomware attack that knocked the utility's internal computer systems offline. Also Read: FBI Suggests Ransomware Victims — ' Just Pay the Ransom '. The attack took place earlier this week when one of the compan
Hacking Smart Electricity Meters To Cut Power Bills

Hacking Smart Electricity Meters To Cut Power Bills

Oct 17, 2014
Smart devices are growing at an exponential pace with the increase in connecting devices embedded in cars, retail systems, refrigerators, televisions and countless other things people use in their everyday life, but security and privacy are the key issues for such applications, which still face some enormous number of challenges. Millions of Network-connected electricity meters or Smart meters used in Spain are susceptible to cyberattack by hackers due to lack of basic and essential security controls that could put Millions of homes at risk, according to studies carried out by a pair of security researcher. HACKERS TO CAUSE BLACKOUT AND BILL FRAUD The security vulnerabilities found in the electricity meters could allow an intruder to carry out billing fraud or even shut down electric power to homes and cause blackouts. Poorly protected credentials inside the devices could let attackers take control over the gadgets, warn the researchers. The utility that deployed the
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
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