Critical Infrastructure’s Silent Threat: Part 3 - Protecting PLCs and Their Environment
Part 3: Protecting PLCs and Their Environment For many years, PLCs have been insecure by design. Several years into customizing and applying best practices from IT gave rise to secure protocols,...
Critical Infrastructure’s Silent Threat: Part 2 - Understanding PLCs
Part 2: Decoding the Complexity of PLCs In part one of this series we explained how Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have become key targets for cyber security attacks due to their legacy...
Critical Infrastructure’s Silent Threat: Part 1 - The Invisible Enemy
Part 1: The Invisible Enemy Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are an essential part of industrial manufacturing plants. They are widely used in industrial control systems (ICS) to automate...
Preparing For New York’s Electric Utility Cybersecurity Laws
What You Need To Do Now! Even if you aren’t in New York! When New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation to create cybersecurity protections for the state's energy grid at the end of 2022, she...
The Rise of Iran-Sponsored Threat Actors
In mid-summer of 2022, Albania accused the Iranian government of targeting them with a series of major cyberattacks. The attacks, which targeted government servers and online portals, raised alarms...
Securing Your Plant Without Shutting It Down: Navigating the Intersection of IT and OT
If one of your organization’s goals for 2023 is to implement a robust OT/ICS cyber security solution (and here’s why it absolutely should be, even if budgets are a little tight!) you may need a...
Navigating the Changing Landscape of OT Security in the New Year
It’s become somewhat of a ritual at the beginning of every year, (almost) every company comes up with a review of the past year, and an attempt to forecast what the next 12 months will bring. This...
Hospitals in the Crosshairs: The Alarming Rise of Ransomware Attacks in Healthcare
On a Sunday evening in late December, 2022 The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto was hit with a ransomware attack that took down several vital hospital network systems and caused widespread...
Why OT Research Is Controversial - But Necessary
I want to discuss a subject that doesn't get enough attention in the world of OT/ICS cyber security considering how fundamental it is, and also sparks a surprising amount of controversy. The topic is...
OT Asset Discovery: Improving Your Security Posture Using Device Type Learning
A SCADAfence New Feature report The first question we're usually asked by any CISO who wants to increase their OT security posture is about asset visibility and management. Gathering a comprehensive...
This Thanksgiving, Be Thankful for OT Security | SCADAfence
Thanksgiving – when families get together and express gratitude for everything they have, accompanied by good food and hopefully great football. For most families and network security teams who just...
Four Reasons for CISOs to Maintain (or Increase!) Their OT Security Budget During A Recession
Psst….Don’t look now, but the global economy might be entering a recession. Yeah, yeah, you already know that. Everyday you’re reading about tech industry layoffs, stock market dips, and general...
Did Russia Attack Europe’s Largest Copper Producer Aurubis?
Three days before Halloween, on Oct 28, 2022 Aurubis, the largest copper producer in Europe, issued a press release announcing that it had been hit by a cyber attack. The company announced that it...
The Rise of Post-Exploitation Attack Frameworks
The Cyber Kill Chain is a framework that outlines the stages of common cyberattacks and the points in the process at which attacks can be detected or intercepted. Developed by Lockheed Martin, this...
OpenSSL Vulnerability - What It Means For Your OT Network
The cyber security community was deeply engrossed this week in the news that OpenSSL, the organization responsible for the software package that encrypts and secures communications across much of the...
Top OT Security Solutions: Gartner's Advice For Protecting Your Network
If you are the person in your organization responsible for securing an OT network, you are probably feeling very popular these days. Your inbox is no doubt full of emails inviting you to ‘hop on a...
New Insights into GhostSec Attacks on Iran’s Infrastructure
Multiple factions of the hacker group known as “Anonymous” have banded together to carry out coordinated cyber attacks targeting Iran as retaliation for the deaths of multiple young women in Iran...
5 Best Practices for Operational Technology (OT) Security
Why Do You Need Operational Network Security? Modern operational technology (OT) networks are evolving due to developments such as the rise Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industry 4.0, smart...
NSA and CISA Issue Joint Advisory for OT/ICS Networks
The US National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a joint advisory specifically for OT/ICS networks. The advisory offers guidance on ways...
Introducing SCADAfence's “Tailored Threat Intelligence”
A SCADAfence New Feature report “Could we be next?” One of the biggest challenges for an industrial OT/ICS security professional is figuring out if their organization is vulnerable to the latest...
SCADAfence Discovers First CVEs Detected In Alerton PLCs
Alerton, a subsidiary of Honeywell, is a major manufacturer of building management systems for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). SCADAfence’s research team discovered vulnerabilities...
LockBit Ransomware Targets OT
What do Organizations Need to Know about LockBit? The first known ransomware attacks using what would come to be known as LockBit were reported back in 2019. Organizations that were infected with the...
Presenting The SCADAfence Cloud for OT Networks
SCADAfence now offers new advanced services via our cloud. We use the cloud to deliver continuous OT security updates, software upgrades and OT health monitoring.
Understanding The South Staffordshire Water Cyber Attack
South Staffordshire PLC, parent company of South Staffs Water, a small independent utility that supplies water to 1.6 million customers, including 35,000 businesses, in central England was hit by a...
Evaluating Risk Across Your Entire OT Architecture
A SCADAfence New Feature Report Here is the standard, old school way of automated risk assessment across an OT network: First, scan each device individually. Then evaluate its specific level of risk...
ICS / OT Security News Update | SCADAfence - August 17
Our research team compiled the latest updates on newly announced CVEs, recent ransomware attacks including BlackCat & Luna, and IoT security news. They also offer analysis of the potential impacts...
SCADAfence Contributes New Metasploit Module For Pentesting BACnet
The SCADAfence engineering team has contributed a new module to the widely used Metasploit framework as a “pay it forward” program that will allow pentesters and asset owners to use a new set of...
CVE Prioritization Boosts OT Security & Saves Your Organization Money
A SCADAfence New Feature reportA large, robust Industrial Control Systems (ICS) network can contain tens of thousands of devices. Each of those devices may have any number of associated known CVEs...
Did Iranian Hackers Cause The Fire At An Israeli Power Plant?
Iranian Hackers Claimed Responsibility for the Power Plant Fire Almost immediately after a fire broke out in an active power plant in southern Israel on July 14, 2022, an Iranian hacking group...
ICS / OT Security News Update | SCADAfence - July 15
Our research team compiled the latest updates on newly announced CVEs, recent ransomware attacks and IoT security news. They also offer analysis of the potential impacts and their expert...
The Iran Steel Industry Cyber Attack Explained
Iran’s steel Industry was hit by a hacktivist group calling themselves ”Goneshke Darande” [Predatory Sparrow] on June 27th, 2022. The attack focused specifically on three steel companies that are...
What Really Caused The Freeport LNG Plant Explosion?
This blog is a response to a recently published article that implied a link between the June 8th explosion at the Freeport LNG plant and Russian threat actors. The author attempted to connect...
ICS / OT Security News Update | SCADAfence - June 22
Our research team compiled the latest updates on newly announced CVEs, recent ransomware attacks and IoT security news. They also offer analysis of the potential impacts and their expert...
Why Wind Farms’ OT Networks Could Be Ransomware’s Next Big Target
A Change In The Air The past several decades have seen a seismic shift in how the world thinks about energy. Concerns about climate change and global geopolitics have caused many nations to declare a...
Interview With SCADAfence's New Field CTO, Paul Smith
OT and ICS Industry veteran Paul Smith, author of “Pentesting Industrial Control Systems” has recently joined the SCADAfence team in the role of Field CTO. We interviewed Paul to get his thoughts on...
Weekly ICS / OT Security News Digest | SCADAfence - May 10
Our research team has put together all of the most relevant news topics in the Ransomware and IoT security fields, as well as their impacts and their expert recommendations:
CISA's Top 15 Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities: SCADAfence Customers Stay Protected
On April 27, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), published a joint advisory in collaboration with CSA/NSA/FBI/ACSC and other cybersecurity authorities, providing details on...
INCONTROLLER / Pipedream: State-Sponsored Attack Tools Targeting Multiple ICS Systems
Dangerous New Malware Can Shut Down, Sabotage Industrial Sites
Industroyer2 Malware Attack: Vigilance needed on ICS Networks | SCADAfence
Russian-backed Group Attempts to Compromise Ukrainian Power Grid Using Industroyer2 Malware As part of their ongoing military assault against neighboring Ukraine, Russian-backed hacker group Sandworm...
Vulnerability Report: Rockwell PLC Unauthorized Code Injection [CVE-2022-1161, CVE-2022-1159]
Two vulnerabilities in Rockwell programmable logic controllers and engineering workstation software have been disclosed. These vulnerabilities give attackers a way to modify automation processes and...