Hackers ‘working for a foreign government’ have ALREADY gained access to power companies across the US and Europe, security firm warns
Malicious email campaigns have been used to gain entry into organizations in the United States, Turkey and Switzerland
Experts fear groups could be planning to sabotage the entire power grid
Cyber attacks began in late 2015 but increased in frequency in April of this year
Experts believe they are probably the work of a foreign government
DAILYMAIL.COM
6 September 2017
Advanced hackers have targeted United States and European energy companies in a cyber espionage campaign that has in some cases successfully broken into the core systems that control the companies’ operations, according to researchers at the security firm Symantec.
Malicious email campaigns have been used to gain entry into organizations in the United States, Turkey and Switzerland, and likely other countries well, Symantec said in a report published on Wednesday.
The cyber attacks, which began in late 2015 but increased in frequency in April of this year, are probably the work of a foreign government and bear the hallmarks of a hacking group known as Dragonfly, Eric Chien, a cyber security researcher at Symantec, said in an interview.
The research adds to concerns that industrial firms, including power providers and other utilities, are susceptible to cyber attacks that could be leveraged for destructive purposes in the event of a major geopolitical conflict.
In June the U.S. government warned industrial firms about a hacking campaign targeting the nuclear and energy sectors, saying in an alert seen by Reuters that hackers sent phishing emails to harvest credentials in order to gain access to targeted networks.
Chien said he believed that alert likely referenced the same campaign Symantec has been tracking.
He said dozens of companies had been targeted and that a handful of them, including in the United States, had been compromised on the operational level.
That level of access meant that motivation was ‘the only step left’ preventing ‘sabotage of the power grid,’ Chien said.
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