WASHINGTON—Hackers have developed powerful malware that can shut down electricity distribution systems and possibly other critical infrastructure, two cyber security firms announced Monday, with one report linking it to Russia.
Slovakia-based ESET said the malware is the most powerful threat to appear since Stuxnet, the hacking tool used to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program believed developed by US and Israeli intelligence.
ESET said the malware, which it dubbed Industroyer, may be behind the one-hour shutdown of power to the Ukraine capital Kiev last December.
The company said Industroyer’s potent threat is that it works using the communication protocols designed decades ago and built into energy, transportation, water and gas systems around the world.
Making use of these poorly-secured protocols, Industroyer can take direct control of electricity substation switches and circuit breakers, giving hackers the ability to shut down power distribution and damage equipment.
The malware is the “biggest threat to industrial control systems since Stuxnet,” ESET said, without indicating who was behind it.
But in a separate report on the same malware Monday, a second cyber security company, Dragos, tied it to a Russian hacker group called Sandworm which has been linked to the Russian government.
Dragos gave its own name to the malware, “CrashOverride,” and said it is only the second-ever malware deployed for disrupting physical industrial processes, after Stuxnet.
source: technology.inquirer.net
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