May 30 2023

The essence of OT security: A proactive guide to achieving CISA’s Cybersecurity Performance Goals

Category: CISA,OT/ICS,Security ToolsDISC @ 9:27 am

The widespread adoption of remote and hybrid working practices in recent years has brought numerous benefits to various industries, but has also introduced new cyber threats, particularly in the critical infrastructure sector.

These threats extend not only to IT networks but also to operational technology (OT) and cyber-physical systems, which can directly influence crucial physical processes.

In response to these risks, the US government reinforced critical infrastructure security by introducing Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) mandated by the US Cybersecurity Infrastructure & Security Agency (CISA).

Recently, CISA updated the CPGs to align with NIST’s standard cybersecurity framework, establishing each of the five goals as a prioritized subset of IT and OT cybersecurity practices.

In this article, we will look in more detail at CISA’s revamped CPGs and discuss the potential solutions available to help organizations achieve these critical goals.

CPG 1.0 Identify: Scoping out the vulnerabilities in the OT environment

CISA’s first CPG is “Identify”, which includes identifying the vulnerabilities in the IT and OT assets inventory, establishing supply chain incident reporting and vulnerability disclosure program, validating the effectiveness of third-party security controls across your IT and OT networks, establishing OT security leadership, and mitigating known vulnerabilities. Critical infrastructure organizations must address all these sub-categories exclusively to achieve the first CPG.

Addressing these responsibilities requires a dynamic effort. Firstly, organizations must strengthen their IT and OT relationship by fostering more effective collaboration between the security teams of both departments. But, most importantly, IT and OT teams must come together to understand the potential cyber threats and risks of each environment and how it affects the other. To achieve the first CPG, it is critical that these departments are not kept in isolation but rather collaborate and communicate frequently.

At the same time, organizations must establish OT leadership by clearly identifying a single leader who will be responsible and accountable for OT-specific cybersecurity. From there, organizations must create an asset inventory or glossary that clearly identifies and tracks all OT and IT assets across the entire ecosystem. These assets should be regularly audited based on their vulnerability management program. It’s also highly critical to have an open, public, and easily accessible communication channel where vendors, third parties, or employees can disclose any potential vulnerability in relation to the OT and IT assets.

CPG 2.0 Protect: Safeguarding privileged access to OT assets

CISA’s second CPG is “Protect”, which emphasizes the account security aspects of OT assets. To achieve this goal, critical infrastructure organizations are required to strengthen their password policies, change default credentials across OT remote access systems, apply network segmentation to segregate OT and IT networks, and separate general user and privileged accounts.

Addressing all these aspects of account security can be a chore for most organizations, but they can turn to unified secure remote access (SRA) solutions that can extend multiple account-level security controls to OT remote users via enforcement of multi-factor authentication (MFA), least privilege policies, and role-based access. Such solutions can also support advanced credential policies to further reduce the risk of unauthorized access and denial of service attacks.

It’s also important that organizations only leverage SRA solutions that are based on zero trust policies. This will help organizations establish effective network segmentation that eliminates direct, unfettered remote connectivity to OT assets, and to continuously monitor personnel activity during all remote OT connections.

CPG 3.0 Detect: Awareness of critical threats and potential attack vectors across your OT environment

CISA’s third CPG emphasizes the detection of relevant threats and knowledge of potential attack vectors and TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) that can compromise OT security and potentially disrupt critical services.

Detecting relevant threats and TTPs across OT assets and networks requires a proactive approach that combines advanced monitoring and analysis. Real-time monitoring solution should be complemented with comprehensive network visibility, allowing for the swift detection of anomalies and unusual patterns.

A critical aspect of threat detection in OT environments — and meeting the CPG mandate — is the sharing of information and collaboration between various stakeholders. Threat intelligence platforms play an essential role in gathering and disseminating information about current and emerging threats. By leveraging this valuable data, organizations can stay ahead of potential risks, fine-tune their defenses, and ensure the safety and security of their OT assets. Additionally, conducting regular security assessments, penetration testing, and vulnerability scanning will help uncover any weaknesses in the infrastructure, allowing for timely remediation and improved resilience against cyberattacks.

CPG 4.0 and 5.0: Respond and Recover

The final two CISA’s CPGs stress the importance of incident reporting and planning. Regardless of how robust your OT security practices are, cyber threats are almost inevitable in today’s interconnected and increasingly remote networking era. So, while proactive security solutions are necessary, attacks still are unavoidable, especially in a highly targeted sector like critical infrastructure.

Therefore, CISA stresses that organizations must have a comprehensive plan and process outlined for reporting security incidents and effectively recovering their affected systems or services upon a breach.

Advanced SRA solutions can help organizations to achieve these goals through automated recording of user activities and asset-related data, as well as creating automated backups of critical data. More specifically, they can log all user sessions, encrypt all user- and asset-related data, and retain logs of OT remote user activity. These measures help to ensure that critical information is stored in accordance with all relevant regulatory requirements and backup and recovery needs.

Conclusion

Overall, the vulnerabilities of ageing OT assets and siloed OT and IT networks have created a significant threat to critical infrastructure entities, which has been further exacerbated by the prevalence of remote access.

CISA’s OT-specific goals and actions within the CPGs provide a much-needed set of guidelines for CNI organizations to strengthen their security posture and increase cyber resilience. By following CISA’s recommendations and employing innovative security technologies, organizations can minimize the risk of cyberattacks affecting the physical world and public safety.

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Tags: CISA, Cybersecurity Performance Goals, ICS, Industrial Cybersecurity, OT


Feb 17 2023

How hackers can cause physical damage to bridges

Category: OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 11:48 am

In this Help Net Security video, Daniel Dos Santos, Head of Security Research at Forescout, talks about recent research, which has revealed how attackers can move laterally between vulnerable networks and devices found at the controller level of critical infrastructure. This would allow them to damage assets such as movable bridges physically.

This lateral movement lets attackers access industrial control systems and cross often-overlooked security perimeters to cause physical damage. From sensors that measure and detect pressure, temperature, flow and levels of liquids, air, and gases, to analyzers that determine chemical compositions and actuators that enable machines to move. Moving through these devices at the lowest levels, attackers can circumvent built-in functional and safety limitations to cause significant damage or disruption to services, or worse, pose a potential threat to life.

To demonstrate the potential implications, Forescout has built an industry-first proof-of-concept (PoC) which shows how attackers can move laterally on the controller level (Purdue level 1) to cause cyber and physical impact, as illustrated through the scenario of damaging a movable bridge during a closing sequence.

As part of the research, two new vulnerabilities are also being disclosed for the first time – CVE-2022-45788 and CVE-2022-45789 – which allows for remote code execution and authentication bypass, respectively, on Schneider Electric Modicon Unity Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs).

Modicon PLCs are used in a wide range of industrial processes and critical infrastructure, including in industries such as water and wastewater, mining, manufacturing, and energy. Whilst these devices should not be accessible online, Forescout has found that close to a thousand PLCs have been exposed, with France (33%), Spain (17%), Italy (15%), and the United States (6%) revealed as the countries with the most exposed devices.

The number of devices visible is just a small indication of the popularity of these PLCs, but these devices also highlight some of the critical facilities that rely on them. For example, several devices were connected to hydro power plants, solar parks and airports.

bridge open

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Tags: Industrial Cybersecurity, OT/ICS critical infrastructure


Dec 29 2022

INDUSTRIAL CYBERSECURITY USB THREAT REPORT 2022

Category: OT/ICSDISC @ 11:52 am
INDUSTRIAL CYBERSECURITY USB THREAT REPORT 2022 – by Honeywell Forge

OT, ICS & SCADA Security

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Tags: Industrial Cybersecurity, Threat Report


Sep 22 2022

NSA shares guidance to help secure OT/ICS critical infrastructure

Category: OT/ICSDISC @ 9:17 pm
NSA

The National Security Agency (NSA) and CISA have issued guidance on how to secure operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICSs) part of U.S. critical infrastructure.

The joint advisory shares info on all the steps used by malicious actors to compromise IT-enabled OT and ICS assets which provide a larger attack surface and highlights measures security professionals can take to defend against them.

“Cyber actors, including advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, have targeted OT/ICS systems in recent years to achieve political gains, economic advantages, and possibly to execute destructive effects. Recently, they’ve developed tools for scanning, compromising, and controlling targeted OT devices,” the NSA said.

The advisory also “notes the increasing threats to OT and ICS assets that operate, control, and monitor day-to-day critical infrastructure and industrial processes. OT/ICS designs are publicly available, as are a wealth of tools to exploit IT and OT systems.”

In today’s advisory [PDF], you can find detailed information on how to block threat actors’ attacks at every step, including attempts to collect intelligence, gain initial access, or deploy and execute malicious tools in compromised critical infrastructure systems.

Control_systems_attack_flow
image: NSA

Mitigation measures

However, some defenders may be unable to implement some of the recommended security strategies that could help mitigate many common tactics used to target critical infrastructure control systems. 

For them, NSA and CISA provide some security best practices to counter adversaries’ tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs):

  • Limit exposure of system information: Operational and system information and configuration data are crucial elements of critical infrastructure operations. The importance of keeping such data confidential cannot be overstated.
  • Identify and secure remote access points: Owner/operators must maintain detailed knowledge of all installed systems, including which remote access points are—or could be—operating in the control system network. Creating a full “connectivity inventory” is a critical step in securing access to the system.
  • Restrict tools and scripts: Limit access to network and control system application tools and scripts to legitimate users performing legitimate tasks on the control system. Removing the tools and scripts entirely and patching embedded control system components for exploitable vulnerabilities is often not feasible. Thus, carefully apply access and use limitations to particularly vulnerable processes and components to limit the threat. 
  • Conduct regular security audits: Such an audit aims to identify and document system vulnerabilities, practices, and procedures that should be eliminated to improve the cyber defensive posture and ultimately prevent malicious cyber actors from being able to cause their intended effects.
  • Implement a dynamic network environment: A little change can go a long way to disrupt previously obtained access by a malicious actor.

“It is vital for OT/ICS defenders to anticipate the TTPs of cyber actors combining IT expertise with engineering know-how,” the two federal agencies added.

“Defenders can employ the mitigations listed in this advisory to limit unauthorized access, lock down tools and data flows, and deny malicious actors from achieving their desired effects.”

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nsa-shares-guidance-to-help-secure-ot-ics-critical-infrastructure/

Powering Through: Building Critical Infrastructure Resilience

Tags: NSA, OT/ICS critical infrastructure


Aug 08 2022

What Makes ICS/OT Infrastructure Vulnerable?

Category: OT/ICSDISC @ 10:46 pm
OT Infrastructure Vulnerable
Infrastructure security for operational technologies (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) varies from IT security in several ways, with the inverse confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) tradeoff being one of the leading causes.
Adopting cybersecurity solutions to protect OT infrastructure is a vital obligation since availability is critical in OT infrastructure. It necessitates a thorough knowledge of ICS operations, security standards/frameworks, and recommended security solutions.
OT security in the past was restricted to guarding the infrastructure using well-known techniques like security officers, biometrics, and fences because ICS/OT systems didn’t connect to the internet.
For ease of operation, every ICS/OT infrastructure currently has internet access or is doing so. However, this transformation exposes these systems to dangers that cannot be avoided by relying just on conventional precautions.

Table of Contents
OT/ICS Security Trends
Vulnerabilities In ICS/OT Infrastructure:
Some of the vulnerabilities are:Authentication-Free Protocols
User Authentication Weakness
Conclusion:

Industrial Cybersecurity: Efficiently monitor the cybersecurity posture of your ICS environment

Tags: ICS/OT


Jul 27 2022

Understand the OT Security and Its Importance

Category: OT/ICSDISC @ 9:00 am

This article discusses OT security and why it is essential for protecting industrial systems from cyberattacks. We will also discuss common control objectives that can help companies improve their overall cybersecurity posture by implementing effective OT security measures.

Table of Contents

OT Security

Industrial Cybersecurity: Efficiently monitor the cybersecurity posture of your ICS environment, 2nd Edition

IT/OT Security Convergence And Risk Mitigation

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Tags: ICS & SCADA devices, IT/OT Security, IT/OT Security Convergence, OT security


Jun 30 2022

OT security: Helping under-resourced critical infrastructure organizations

Category: OT/ICSDISC @ 7:59 am
Supply chain risks are compounded for organizations that must protect both their IT and the OT from cyber-attacks. What technologies and approaches should they consider implementing? What specific pitfalls should they avoid, and how?

Most third party risk programs are IT-focused – including suppliers that have access to the organization’s intellectual property or network. But some OT suppliers have access – physical and remote – to the OT environment, for troubleshooting, maintenance, etc., and it’s important that the risk posed by those suppliers is included in the enterprise third party risk program, since remote access to OT poses obvious security risks, and on-site access often involves USB drives and other direct electronic access which also can introduce malware into the OT environment. The good news is that these vendors can simply be included in existing third party risk programs.

On the other hand, more and more suppliers are being impacted by ransomware hitting their OT environment. This impacts their ability to provide their products and services to their customers, which can in turn impact their customers’ operations. Therefore, the scope of third party risk programs needs to be broadened once again to include critical suppliers in OT – those whose products or services are critical to the organization’s own OT operations. Now the bad news: existing third party risk programs typically do not assess security risk in OT environments. In fact, although frameworks and best practices are emerging in OT security, organizations usually need to rely on OT security experts to assist in these assessments and remediation recommendations.

Finally, we have seen increasing cyber attacks against the software supply chain, as well as attacks targeting vulnerabilities in critical OT products. When choosing suppliers of critical OT products, it is important to determine whether the vendor is certified to ISA/IEC 62443 â€“ the leading security certification in OT. Those certifications should be an important factor in choosing products for the OT environment.

How can IT and OT Sec teams improve their cooperation towards their common goal (of keeping all systems working to support the company in achieving its business objectives)?

The future of ICS security depends on OT-centric security solutions - Help  Net Security

Industrial Cybersecurity: Efficiently monitor the cybersecurity posture of your ICS environment

Practical Industrial Cybersecurity: ICS, Industry 4.0, and IIoT

Tags: Industrial Cybersecurity, OT security


Apr 14 2022

US gov agencies e private firms warn nation-state actors are targeting ICS & SCADA devices

Category: OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 8:35 am

The US government agencies warned of threat actors that are targeting ICS and SCADA systems from various vendors.

The Department of Energy (DOE), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) published a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to warn of offensive capabilities developed by APT actors that could allow them to compromise multiple industrial control system (ICS)/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) devices, including:

  • Schneider Electric programmable logic controllers (PLCs),
  • OMRON Sysmac NEX PLCs, and
  • Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) servers.

According to the advisory that was issued with the help of leading cybersecurity firms (Dragos, Mandiant, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, and Schneider Electric), nation-state hacking groups were able to hack multiple industrial systems using a new ICS-focused malware toolkit dubbed PIPEDREAM that was discovered in early 2022.

“APT actors have developed custom-made tools that, once they have established initial access in an OT network, enables them to scan for, compromise, and control certain ICS/SCADA devices” reads the advisory.

“The APT actors’ tools have a modular architecture and enable cyber actors to conduct highly automated exploits against targeted devices. The tools have a virtual console with a command interface that mirrors the interface of the targeted ICS/SCADA device. Modules interact with targeted devices, enabling operations by lower-skilled cyber actors to emulate higher-skilled actor capabilities.”

The toolkit could allow to scan for targeted devices, conduct reconnaissance on device details, upload malicious configuration/code to the targeted device, back up or restore device contents, and modify device parameters. 

Threat actors can also leverage a tool to install and exploit a known-vulnerable ASRock-signed motherboard driver (“AsrDrv103.sys“) by triggering the CVE-2020-15368 flaw to execute malicious code in the Windows kernel. The tool could be used to perform lateral movements within an IT or OT environment and interfere with devices’ operation.

Researchers from Dragos shared a detailed analysis of the new PIPEDREAM toolkit confirming that it has yet to be employed in attacks in the wild.

“PIPEDREAM is the seventh known ICS-specific malware. The CHERNOVITE Activity Group (AG) developed PIPEDREAM. PIPEDREAM is a modular ICS attack framework that an adversary could leverage to cause disruption, degradation, and possibly even destruction depending on targets and the environment.” reads the report published by Dragos. “Dragos assesses with high confidence that PIPEDREAM has not yet been employed in the wild for destructive effects. This is a rare case of accessing and analyzing malicious capabilities developed by adversaries before their deployment and gives defenders a unique opportunity to prepare in advance.”

Mandiant, which tack the toolkit as INCONTROLLER, also published a detailed analysis warning of its dangerous cyber attack capability.

“The tools can interact with specific industrial equipment embedded in different types of machinery leveraged across multiple industries. While the targeting of any operational environments using this toolset is unclear, the malware poses a critical risk to organizations leveraging the targeted equipment. INCONTROLLER is very likely state sponsored and contains capabilities related to disruption, sabotage, and potentially physical destruction.” reads the analysis published by Mandiant. “INCONTROLLER represents an exceptionally rare and dangerous cyber attack capability. It is comparable to TRITON, which attempted to disable an industrial safety system in 2017;”

The joint report also included the following recommendations for all organizations with ICS/SCADA devices:

  • Isolate ICS/SCADA systems and networks from corporate and internet networks using strong perimeter controls, and limit any communications entering or leaving ICS/SCADA perimeters. 
  • Enforce multifactor authentication for all remote access to ICS networks and devices whenever possible.
  • Have a cyber incident response plan, and exercise it regularly with stakeholders in IT, cybersecurity, and operations.
  • Change all passwords to ICS/SCADA devices and systems on a consistent schedule, especially all default passwords, to device-unique strong passwords to mitigate password brute force attacks and to give defender monitoring systems opportunities to detect common attacks.
  • Maintain known-good offline backups for faster recovery upon a disruptive attack, and conduct hashing and integrity checks on firmware and controller configuration files to ensure validity of those backups. 
  • Limit ICS/SCADA systems’ network connections to only specifically allowed management and engineering workstations.
  • Robustly protect management systems by configuring Device Guard, Credential Guard, and Hypervisor Code Integrity (HVCI). Install Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions on these subnets and ensure strong anti-virus file reputation settings are configured.
  • Implement robust log collection and retention from ICS/SCADA systems and management subnets.
  • Leverage a continuous OT monitoring solution to alert on malicious indicators and behaviors, watching internal systems and communications for known hostile actions and lateral movement. For enhanced network visibility to potentially identify abnormal traffic, consider using CISA’s open-source Industrial Control Systems Network Protocol Parsers (ICSNPP).
  • Ensure all applications are only installed when necessary for operation. 
  • Enforce principle of least privilege. Only use admin accounts when required for tasks, such as installing software updates. 
  • Investigate symptoms of a denial of service or connection severing, which exhibit as delays in communications processing, loss of function requiring a reboot, and delayed actions to operator comments as signs of potential malicious activity.
  • Monitor systems for loading of unusual drivers, especially for ASRock driver if no ASRock driver is normally used on the system. 

Cisa ICS

Industrial Cybersecurity: Efficiently monitor the cybersecurity posture of your ICS environment

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Tags: ICS & SCADA devices, Industrial Cybersecurity


Mar 23 2022

US critical infrastructure operators should prepare for retaliatory cyberattacks

Category: Cyber Attack,OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 9:13 pm

The warning

“Most of America’s critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector and critical infrastructure owners and operators must accelerate efforts to lock their digital doors,” he noted, and advised those that have not yet done it to harden their cyber defenses by implementing security best practices delineated earlier this year.

“[This warning is] based on evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks,” he added.

US Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger has followed up the warning with a press briefing, during which she stated that “there is no certainty there will be a cyber incident on critical infrastructure,” but that owners and operators of critical infrastructre have the ability and the responsibility to harden the systems and networks the country relies on.

She shared that last week, federal agencies hosted classified briefings with several hundred companies in sectors they felt would be most affected, and “provided very practical, focused advice.”

Previously, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released guidance to help critical infrastructure owners and operators identify and mitigate the risks of influence operations that use mis-, dis-, and malinformation (MDM) narratives.

Neuberger also said that US agencies have not yet attributed the recent attack on satellite communications company Viasat. Nevertheless, the attack has been followed by a CISA alert advising SATCOM network providers or customers on how to upgrade their defenses.

A trigger for important conversations

US critical infrastructure cyberattacks

Critical Infrastructure Risk Assessment: The Definitive Threat Identification and Threat Reduction Handbook

Tags: Critical infrastructure, Critical Infrastructure Risk Assessment


Feb 07 2022

Critical Infrastructure Attacks Spur Cybersecurity Investment

The attacks on critical industrial systems such as Colonial Pipeline last year pushed industrial cybersecurity to center stage. And with the threat of war between Russia and Ukraine, experts warned nations that a global flare-up of cybersecurity attacks on critical infrastructure could be looming. In late January, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) put critical infrastructure organizations on notice: Take “urgent, near-term steps” to mitigate the risk of digital attacks. The alert cited tension in eastern Europe as the catalyst for possible attacks against U.S. digital assets.

Critical Infrastructure Under Attack

Unfortunately, critical systems have long been under significant attack. In fact, an overwhelming 80% of critical infrastructure organizations experienced ransomware attacks last year, according to a survey released today by PollFish on behalf of cyber-physical systems security provider Claroty. The survey, completed in September 2021, gathered responses from full-time information technology and operational technology (OT) security professionals in the United States (500 professionals), Europe (300) and Asia-Pacific (300). The industries surveyed include IT hardware, oil and gas (including pipelines), consumer products, electric energy, pharmaceutical/life sciences/medical devices, transportation, agriculture/food and beverage, heavy industry, water and waste and automotive.

Globally, 80% of respondents reported experiencing an attack and 47% of respondents said the attack impacted their operational technology and industrial control systems environment. A full 90% of respondents that reported their attacks to authorities or shareholders said the impact of those attacks was substantial in 49% of cases.

Attacking Digital Transformation

Cybersecurity Investments

Effectiveness of National Cyber Policy to Strengthen the Security and Resilience of Critical Infrastructure Against Cyber Attacks

Tags: Critical Infrastructure Attacks


Dec 14 2021

Modern cars: A growing bundle of security vulnerabilities

Category: OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 9:55 am
Cars are becoming increasingly smart and an extension to our mobile phones. How is this impacting users’ security and privacy?

With the expansion of our technology in use, our vulnerability surface increases dramatically. Ultimately, this is yet another vulnerability to keep in mind for your own safety and security. As we grow in our technology and dependence thereon, that inherently expands the opportunity for bad actors to take advantage of the dependence. The difference with car vulnerability, however, is you’re not just talking about your personal data being compromised, but rather the influence over your car while driving could affect your immediate physical safety.

In terms of privacy, the onboard computers of used, rented, or crashed/totaled vehicles can contain sensitive residual data from previous drivers such as contact and calendar details, unencrypted videos, and more.

What are the biggest vulnerabilities of today’s modern cars?

The lack of one single “gate keeper” is a substantial issue when it comes to modern car vulnerability. The patchwork of various technologies being meshed together for the overall car means not only is there not one single overseer of that technology but also that protocols are set without security in mind because they need to be able to easily communicate with each other.

In addition, we see the same vulnerabilities that you have with your phones and computers: protocol vulnerability. The difference is what the bad actors could have access to: electronic control units (ECUs) which all communicate to access and control the subsystems in a car such as your braking or navigation system. Not only could the hacker access the vehicle information resulting in influence on the car such as the alert systems within the vehicle, but could also access personal information such as home addresses or phone IPs.

What are the techniques hackers could use to compromise a car?

Hacking Connected Cars: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

Tags: cars security, Hacking Connected Cars


Nov 10 2021

Most CIOs and CISOs underestimate the risk of an OT breach

Category: CISO,OT/ICS,vCISODISC @ 10:27 am

“Not only do enterprises rely on OT, the public at large relies on this technology for vital services including energy and water. Unfortunately, cybercriminals are all too aware that critical infrastructure security is generally weak. As a result, threat actors believe ransomware attacks on OT are highly likely to pay off,” said Skybox Security CEO Gidi Cohen. “Just as evil thrives on apathy, ransomware attacks will continue to exploit OT vulnerabilities as long as inaction persists.”

The research unearths the uphill battle that OT security faces – comprised of network complexity, functional silos, supply chain risk, and limited vulnerability remediation options. Threat actors take advantage of these OT weaknesses in ways that don’t just imperil individual companies – but threaten public health, safety, and the economy.

Key takeaways

Organizations underestimate the risk of a cyberattack

Fifty-six percent of all respondents were “highly confident” their organization will not experience an OT breach in the next year. Yet, 83% also said they had at least one OT security breach in the prior 36 months. Despite the criticality of these facilities, the security practices in place are often weak or nonexistent.

CISO disconnect between perception and reality

Seventy-three percent of CIOs and CISOs are highly confident their OT security system will not be breached in the next year. Compared to only 37% of plant managers, who have more firsthand experiences with the repercussion of attacks. While some refuse to believe their OT systems are vulnerable, others say the next breach is around the corner.

Compliance does not equal security

To date, compliance standards have proven insufficient in preventing security incidents. Maintaining compliance with regulations and requirements was the most common top concern of all respondents. Regulatory compliance requirements will continue to increase in light of recent attacks on critical infrastructure.

Complexity increases security risk

Seventy-eight percent said complexity due to multivendor technologies is a challenge in securing their OT environment. In addition, 39% of all respondents said that a top barrier to improving security programs is decisions are made in individual business units with no central oversight.

Cyber liability insurance is considered sufficient by some

Thirty-four percent of respondents said that cyber liability insurance is considered a sufficient solution. However, cyber liability insurance does not cover costly “lost business” that results from a ransomware attack, which is one of the top three concerns of the survey respondents.

Exposure and path analysis are top cybersecurity priorities

Forty-five percent of CISOs and CIOs say the inability to conduct path analysis across the environment to understand actual exposure is one of their top three security concerns. Further, CISOs and CIOs said disjointed architecture across OT and IT environments (48%) and the convergence of IT technologies (40%) are two of their top three greatest security risks.

Functional silos lead to process gaps and technology complexity

CIOs, CISOs, Architects, Engineers, and Plant Managers all list functional silos among their top challenges in securing OT infrastructure. Managing OT security is a team sport. If the team members are using different playbooks, they are unlikely to win together.

Supply chain and third-party risk is a major threat

Forty percent of respondents said that supply chain/third-party access to the network is one of the top three highest security risks. Yet, only 46% said their organization as a third-party access policy that applied to OT.

CISO COMPASS: Navigating Cybersecurity Leadership Challenges with Insights from Pioneers


Aug 06 2021

14 Flaws in NicheStack Leave PLCs, OT Controllers Vulnerable

Category: OT/ICSDISC @ 9:39 am

Considering that OT environments are increasingly in the crosshairs of attackers, the 14 vulnerabilities that JFrog and Forescout Research Labs recently discovered in NicheStack should make the likes of Siemens, Schneider Electric and Rockwell Automation take notice–and action.

Millions of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and controllers from more than 200 device makers use NicheStack, a common, proprietary TCP/IP stack. NicheStack is employed in a wide array of critical infrastructure sectors globally like manufacturing plants, water treatment and power generation and transmission and distribution. It is the basis for numerous TCP/IP stacks and used by OEMS like Altera, Microchip, STMicroelectronics and Freescale.

“These vulnerabilities are very common in OT environments, as many major device vendors are listed as NicheStack customers,” said JFrog CTO Asaf Karas. “For instance, the stack is used in the Siemens S7 PLC, which is one of the most popular PLCs.”

The raft of flaws, dubbed INFRA:HALT, cover a wide gamut of threats–from remote code execution and denial of service (DoS) to TCP spoofing, information leak and DNS cache poisoning. The worst of the flaws, 2020-25928 and 2021-31226 logged CVSSv3.1 scores of 9.8 and 9.1, respectively.

At least for now, there’s a positive take: It seems adversaries have yet to stumble across the flaws. “We didn’t see any sign of exploitation,” said Karas.

He expressed surprise that the vulnerabilities had gone undiscovered. “The biggest surprise is that these kinds of vulnerabilities, that can be automatically detected, were not discovered for such a long time, especially given how critical they are and how common NicheStack is,” said Karas.

InterNiche Technologies has released patches for the vulnerabilities. Still, guarding against them is a thorny matter because, not surprisingly, patching across the supply chain is incredibly challenging from a logistics perspective and OT devices are critical in the environments that use them. So, while the best option for taking the teeth out of these flaws is upgrading to NicheStack v4.3, it might not be the route that many OT-driven businesses take.

14 Flaws in NicheStack Leave PLCs, OT Controllers Vulnerable

Hacking Exposed Industrial Control Systems: ICS and SCADA Security Secrets & Solutions

Tags: OT controller, PLC


May 17 2021

Is 85% of US Critical Infrastructure in Private Hands?

Category: OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 9:20 am

When this problem is discussed, people regularly quote the statistic that 85% of US critical infrastructure is in private hands. It’s a handy number, and matches our intuition. Still, I have never been able to find a factual basis, or anyone who knows where the number comes from. Paul Rosenzweig investigates, and reaches the same conclusion.

Public Private Partnerships (PPP): Construction, Protection, and Rehabilitation of Critical Infrastructure

Discuss objectives and legal requirements associated with PPPs, the potential advantages and limitations of PPPs, and provide guidance as to how to structure a successful PPP for infrastructure investment.

Critical Infrastructure Risk Assessment

Tags: Critical infrastructure


May 13 2021

Security at Bay: Critical Infrastructure Under Attack

Category: OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 10:33 pm

The attack perpetrated by hackers on oil company Colonial Pipeline highlights the dangers that are facing Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and the need for change in the information security landscape,

The attack took place on May 7th where hackers used ransomware to cripple the defense of the company. As a result, all operations were forced to shut down as well as operating systems used by the company. A group named DarkSide claimed to be responsible for Colonial Pipelines attack.

The hacker group is active since august and are part of a professional crime industry that have caused damage of billions of dollars. President Biden has delivery remarks that point out to the involvement of Russia in the development of the ransomware. It is not clear if the Colonial company has paid the demands.

The attack brought to light how critical national infrastructure (CNI) is vulnerable and the need of new methodologies to address new menaces that are evolving on a daily basis on many different ways. As far as we know this attack have proved that the understanding of information security has become outdated as well the solutions that were supposed to protect companies assets.

The impact of the attack was far beyond then expected. Consumers were directely impacted with a hike on prices. Also, in South east some drivers started to stocking up as available oil dropped down in fuel stations. About 5,500 miles of pipeline were shutdown. To figure it out in numbers it represents 45% of fuel comsumed from texas to new york.

As reported by Recorded Future ransomware attack groups are gainning momentum and wide spreading throughout every and all sector. From industry to education everyone is on target of ransomware. It is importante to notice that hackers are publishing part of the data and demanding money to do not publish all the data stolen.

While the United States leads the attack of ransomware hackers are aiming to make other countries victims. Freedom and security are deeply rooted in the american dream, but today all the nation see this rights going down with the dangers of information security.

The US Department of Justice and a group of companies have created a task force to manage the issue of ransomware threat. However, the tools that were released by equation group in the past can be the tipping point to new attacks or development of new ways to bypass known protections.

Little is known yet how the company was breached but it was certanly that the goal was to obtain money instead of corrupting the system. Some parts of the system were restored and the company said it will update their systems. Part of operations are manual at this time but its not sure when the supplies will return to normal.

The question now is if the available supplies will be enough. The disruption of the supplies could lead to an impact on many sectors. Bitdefender released a decryption tool on january for an older version of the ransomware, but they said that for this new version the tool do not work. According to Bloomberg 100GB was stolen in just two hours. This is a remarkable event to be considered as the largest and successful act of cyberwarfare.

Finally we need to develop new systems and new tecnologies as this could be the starting of a surge of new threat actors and new attacks that can not be stopped by the actual protection solutions.  

Sources:

https://therecord.media/ransomware-tracker-threat-groups-focus-on-vulnerable-targets/


Sep 27 2019

State of OT/ICS CyberSecurity

Category: OT/ICS,Scada SecurityDISC @ 6:42 pm

State of OT/ICS Cybersecurity 2019 [Infographic via SANS Institute]

State of ICS/OT CyberSecurity: pdf

Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security

Independent Study Pinpoints Significant SCADA/ICS Security Risks

Cyber-Security and Governance for Industrial Control Systems


NIST Releases Cybersecurity Guide for Energy Sector to Improve Operational Technology



NSM/threat hunting in OT/ICS/SCADA environments
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w8usX9_daE

The Convergence (and Divergence) of IT and OT Cyber Security
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZnfuFzB-XM

ICS Security Assessment Methodology, Tools & Tips


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