US Confirms BlackEnergy Malware Used In Ukrainian Power Plant Hack

The power outage last month in Ukraine that put 80,000 people in the dark was the first electricity failure caused by a computer hack, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has confirmed. Researchers previously suggested that a strain of malicious software known as BlackEnergy, a favorite of Russian hacking groups, was responsible.

The December 23 outage at the Prykarpattyaoblenergo power plant in western Ukraine was a nightmare scenario come true for cybersecurity researchers who have warned it was a question of when, not if, hackers managed to infiltrate a critical infrastructure facility.

DHS issued an advisory Tuesday confirming initial evidence that BlackEnergy malware first infected the plant’s systems after a successful spearphishing email attack, when hackers sent what appears to be a normal message to a high value target. Homeland Security and the FBI are among the international investigators still examining the cyberattack. For the full article click here 

from critical infrastructure alliance http://ift.tt/1RDyBRu
via IFTTT