Mark Clayton of the Christian Science Monitor broke the story of a 6-month spear phishing campaign on 23 gas pipeline companies. “Sensitive files were stolen that could give a cyberintruder the ability to control, or alter the operation of the pipelines, including usernames, passwords, personnel lists, system manuals, and pipeline control system access credentials, the report says.”
Not directly an ICS story, but take a look at the HTC America settlement with the FTC for “an assortment of vulnerabilities that HTC either introduced or failed to address.” Is it government overreach or guidance on how companies can be forced to secure their products?
Stuxnet is the story with a million twists and turns. This week’s addition is a great Symantec whitepaper – Stuxnet 0.5: The Missing Link. This early version of Stuxnet was sent to a malware scanning service November 2007. There is a lot of good information on the 417 attack, and Ralph Langner chimes in on how it agrees and differs from their analysis.
It’s time to get involved if you want to influence the Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Framework required in President Obama’s recent Executive Order. The Request For Information is out and responses are due by April 8th. There is also a Public Workshop on the Framework on April 3rd at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Dark Reading reports on a “ICS Sandbox” funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The Brazilian government is working on something similar. The idea is this is where ICS attacks and defense can be tested at low or no risk to the critical infrastructure.
DHS has put up a site for the National Initiative For Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS). It has cyber security challenges, training, career info and more.
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Worth Reading Articles
- Symantec’s Stuxnet 0.5: The Missing Link
- Langner & Pederson Bound to Fail: Why Cybersecurity Risk Cannot Be “Managed” Away
- Barnaby Jack: “Broken Hearts” How Plausible Was The Homeland Pacemaker Attack < a fun article to end the week
Critical Intelligence’s ICS Security Event Calendar Updates
- Exida Training: 7 Steps to ICS Cybersecurity, April 9 in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Critical Intelligence provides reports and other information products on Cyber Situational Awareness and Threat Intelligence services for Industrial Control System Owner/Operators, Vendors and Government stakeholders.
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