Infrastructure techniques within the US and Europe are weak targets for pro-Russia hackers, quite a few safety companies cautioned in a May 1 advisory assertion.
“In early 2024, the authoring organizations observed pro-Russia hacktivists targeting vulnerable industrial control systems in North America and Europe,” the advisory mentioned, which was authored by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, together with different home and worldwide bureaus.
The companies noticed pro-Russia hackers compromise the operational know-how of infrastructure resembling “Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS), Dams, Energy, and Food and Agriculture Sectors.”
Pro-Russia hackers may very well be breaking into these techniques in varied methods. Some by way of factors embody coming into outdated software program and cracking weak passwords.
While the hackers have primarily brought on “nuisance effects,” the advisory famous that “historically, these hacktivists have been known to exaggerate their capabilities and impacts to targets.” The unauthorized entry is problematic although.
The authoring companies have discovered that interferences might be averted by way of improved cyber hygiene and steering amongst techniques, which is additional defined within the advisory.
The advisory observe mentioned that actions resembling altering passwords for operational know-how, creating multi-factor authentication for accessing that know-how, and limiting the publicity of operational know-how to the web must be taken instantly.
Earlier this yr, there was a hack reported on a Texas water tower, inflicting it to overflow. The group of hackers believed to be liable for the disruption is named Sandworm, and the group was linked to Russia in April.
Mandiant, a cybersecurity agency owned by Google, described Sandworm as a “dynamic and operationally mature threat actor that is actively engaged in the full spectrum of espionage, attack, and influence operations.”
The Department of Justice charged a number of members of Sandworm in 2020 with crimes associated to interfering with the US presidential election in 2016. Sandworm can be identified for its hacking disruptions on a world scale, beforehand concentrating on Ukraine and South Korea.