Denmark energy cyber attack highlights infrastructure security gaps


November 2023 saw an unprecedented cyber attack on Denmark’s energy infrastructure. In a co-ordinated breach of 22 companies, criminal gangs gained access to industrial control systems.

Investigators believe at least one of the attackers was acting on behalf of a state. Michael Murphy, who heads Fortinet’s APAC Operational Technology group from the company’s Sydney office, says critical infrastructure was compromised: “Energy generation sites were forced into island operation mode, where they are no longer centrally managed.” He says the affected companies had a next-generation cybersecurity product in place that they assumed would protect them from any threat. It didn’t.

Read more…
Source: The New Zealand Herald News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Ransomware gang leaks data stolen from Colorado, Miami universities

    March 23, 2021

    Grades and social security numbers for students at the University of Colorado and University of Miami patient data have been posted online by the Clop ransomware group. Starting in December, threat actors affiliated with the Clop ransomware operation began targeting Accellion FTA servers and stealing the data stored on them. Companies use these servers to share ...

  • Energy Giant Shell Is Latest Victim of Accellion Attacks

    March 23, 2021

    Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell is the latest victim of a series of attacks on users of the Accellion legacy File Transfer Appliance (FTA) product, which already has affected numerous companies and been attributed to the FIN11 and the Clop ransomware gang. “Shell has been impacted by a data-security incident involving Accellion’s File Transfer Appliance,” the ...

  • Purple Fox malware worms its way into exposed Windows systems

    March 23, 2021

    Purple Fox, a malware previously distributed via exploit kits and phishing emails, has now added a worm module that allows it to scan for and infect Windows systems reachable over the Internet in ongoing attacks. The malware comes with rootkit and backdoor capabilities, was first spotted in 2018 after infecting at least 30,000 devices, and is ...

  • Office 365 Cyberattack Lands Disgruntled IT Contractor in Jail

    March 23, 2021

    A former IT contractor has been sentenced to two years in prison after hacking into a company’s server and deleting the majority of its employees’ Microsoft Office 365 (O365) accounts. The incident resulted in the company completely shutting down for two days. The 32-year-old contractor, Deepanshu Kher, was initially employed by an unnamed IT consulting firm ...

  • UK colleges and unis urged to prepare for ransomware before it’s too late

    March 23, 2021

    Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has urged universities, schools, and colleges to be vigilant following an increase in ransomware attacks targeting educational institutions. “While operational details cannot be disclosed, the NCSC has dealt with a significant increase in the number of attacks since late February, when establishments were preparing to welcome students back to the ...

  • Microsoft Exchange servers now targeted by Black Kingdom ransomware

    March 22, 2021

    Another ransomware operation known as ‘Black Kingdom’ is exploiting the Microsoft Exchange Server ProxyLogon vulnerabilities to encrypt servers. Over the weekend, security researcher Marcus Hutchins, aka MalwareTechBlog, tweeted that a threat actor was compromising Microsoft Exchange servers via the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities to deploy ransomware. Based on the logs from his honeypots, Hutchins states that the threat actor ...