Cyber attacks against our critical infrastructure are likely to increase…(Bank On It!)

Thursday, May 26, 2016
By Paul Martin

Andrew Meola
BusinessInsider.com
May 26, 2016

The threat of more cyber attacks is very real, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The number of cyber attacks that target industrial control systems for automated industrial machines has been on the rise, according to the department. This increase will likely pick up speed in the next few years, according to Yoni Shohet, the co-founder and CEO or SCADAfence, a startup that provides a system to monitor industrial control systems for cyber threats.

Companies in the manufacturing and utilities spaces have been connecting these systems to gather more data from these systems for their IoT initiatives. The downside is that this opens up these systems to hackers, which could lead to crippling attacks on power grids, dams, and other crucial infrastructure.

Last December, hackers caused a blackout in the Ukraine by hacking into a power grid’s connected control system. The hackers did not use any special tools to do this, but instead used common methods such as spearphishing and malware that they could purchase on the black market.

Shohet predicted that more hackers will target these types of systems once they realize that they can use common methods to do so.

Furthermore, these hackers have a financial reason to launch these attacks. One hour of lost time at a car factory can cost up to $1 million, industrial robotics company FANUC said in a whitepaper last year. So if hackers cripple operations through ransomware, then companies would likely be willing to pay quite a bit for the hackers to release their grip and get the operations running again.

Given this data, it’s no surprise that companies are more worried than ever about the looming threat of hackers penetrating their networks. In the last year, the number of records exposed in data breaches rose 97%, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

The Rest…HERE

Leave a Reply

Join the revolution in 2018. Revolution Radio is 100% volunteer ran. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. God bless!

Follow us on Twitter