Tag: ICS

Aliquippa sewer plant

FBI: Iranian APT Targets Israeli-Made PLCs Used In Critical Industries

The hack of a Pennsylvania water treatment facility in November is part of a larger campaign by an Iranian APT group against users of Israel-made operational technology.

Cyberattacks on Industrial Control Systems Jumped in 2022

Cyberattacks on industrial control systems (ICS) jumped in 2022, with an 87% jump in ransomware attacks and a 35% increase in the number of ransomware groups targeting industrial control and operational technology (OT) systems, according to a report by Dragos Security.

Password Shaming: SCADA Password Dump Intended to Improve Security

In-brief: Call it “password shaming”: a group of security researchers has published a list of default administrator credentials for the software that runs many of the world’s industrial facilities and manufacturing lines. 

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Experts: Despite Warnings, Slow Progress Securing Industrial Systems

Despite increased media attention to the security of industrial control systems and critical infrastructure, progress in securing those devices has been slow, experts say. Despite progress in some areas, critical infrastructure – including energy and transportation networks- remains vulnerable to attacks leveled at known security holes for months or years because of a lack of vendor response or customers who lack the incentive or know-how to patch vulnerable systems. That according to some of the world’s top experts in cyber security and industrial systems, who are gathering this week at an industry conference in Miami. The S4 Conference, sponsored by the firm DigitalBond, is one of the premiere conferences for cyber security as it pertains to industrial control systems and often coincides with disclosures from industrial system vendors about serious security holes in their products. The security of industrial control systems has been a top concern of IT security experts and government […]

Siemens SCALANCE 200

Siemens Patches Holes In Industrial Control Switch

A security researcher discovered two, serious security holes in a switch by Siemens that could allow an attacker to hijack industrial control system hardware that is heavily used by energy and transportation firms, among others. IOActive, a security consulting firm in Seattle, Washington, said on Thursday that Eireann Leverett, a senior security consultant, discovered two vulnerabilities in Siemens’ SCALANCE X-200 Switches. The vulnerabilities were in a web server component that provided administrators with access to features needed to configure the switches. If exploited, they would have allowed an attacker who had access to the same network as the SCALANCE switch to perform administrative actions on the devices, including updating the switch firmware and hijack active web sessions – all without needing to first log in to the device. SCALANCE is a family of Ethernet switches that connect to industrial control system (ICS) devices including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and Human […]