Experts warn hackers could shut down entire power grids by hijacking cloud accounts


Whenever an AI data center thinks really, really hard, it can increase its power consumption so much to trigger disruptions and possibly even blackouts and gear malfunctions. So, is it possible for a malicious actor to trigger this scenario deliberately, in order to cause physical harm?

Multiple researchers from the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, wrote a research paper titled “Bit2Watt: A Cyber-Physical Vulnerability Exploiting GPU Workloads Across Power and Computing Infrastructures.”

In it, they claim that a malicious cloud tenant is, in theory, capable of launching GPU workloads so intensive that they cause physical damage.

Read more…
Source:  TechRadar News


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


Related:

  • Microsoft Addresses Windows TCP/IP RCE/DoS Vulnerability

    October 14, 2020

    Microsoft has released a security update to address a protocol vulnerability—CVE-2020-16898—in Windows Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP stack handling of Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) Router Advertisement packets. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system or cause a denial-of-service condition. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encourages ...

  • FIN11 Cybercrime Gang Shifts Tactics to Double-Extortion Ransomware

    October 14, 2020

    The FIN11 financial crime gang is shifting its tactics from phishing and credential-theft to ransomware, researchers said. According to FireEye Mandiant researchers, FIN11 is notable for its “sheer volume of activity,” known to run up to five disparate wide-scale email phishing campaigns per week. “At this point, it would be difficult to name a client that ...

  • Google, Intel Warn on ‘Zero-Click’ Kernel Bug in Linux-Based IoT Devices

    October 14, 2020

    Google and Intel are warning of a high-severity flaw in BlueZ, the Linux Bluetooth protocol stack that provides support for core Bluetooth layers and protocols to Linux-based internet of things (IoT) devices. According to Google, the vulnerability affects users of Linux kernel versions before 5.9 that support BlueZ. BlueZ, which is an open-source project distributed under ...

  • Two New IoT Vulnerabilities Identified with Mirai Payloads

    October 14, 2020

    Palo Alto Networks is proactively trying to safeguard its customers from attacks however possible. By leveraging its Next-Generation Firewall as sensors on the perimeter to detect malicious payloads and attack patterns, Unit 42 researchers are able to hunt down the menaces out there on the network, be they known or not. Unit 42 researchers have taken ...

  • Threat Brief: Microsoft Vulnerability CVE-2020-16898

    October 14, 2020

    In October 2020, during Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, a security update (CVE-2020-16898) addressed a critical vulnerability discovered in IPv6 Router Advertisement Options (called “DNS RA options”). This vulnerability resides within the Windows TCP/IP stack that is responsible for handling RA packets. Current exploitation leads to a Denial of Service (DoS) with the possibility of remote code ...

  • Norway says Russian hackers were behind August Parliament attack

    October 13, 2020

    Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide today said that Russia is behind the August 2020 cyber-attack on the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget). “On 24 August, the Storting announced a data breach in their e-mail systems,” Søreide said in a press release published earlier today after a briefing that also included Minister of Defense Frank Bakke-Jensen. The ...