Hack attack causes 'massive damage' at steel works

 

The hack attack led to failures in plant equipment and forced the fast shut down of a furnace

A blast furnace at a German steel mill suffered "massive damage" following a cyber attack on the plant's network, says a report.

Details of the incident emerged in the annual report of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
It said attackers used booby-trapped emails to steal logins that gave them access to the mill's control systems.
This led to parts of the plant failing and meant a blast furnace could not be shut down as normal.
The unscheduled shutdown of the furnace caused the damage, said the report.
In its report, BSI said the attackers were very skilled and used both targeted emails and social engineering techniques to infiltrate the plant. In particular, said BSI, the attackers used a "spear phishing" campaign aimed at particular individuals in the company to trick people into opening messages that sought and grabbed login names and passwords.
The phishing helped the hackers extract information they used to gain access to the plant's office network and then its production systems.
Once inside the steel mill's network, the "technical capabilities" of the attackers were evident, said the BSI report, as they showed familiarity with both conventional IT security systems but also the specialised software used to oversee and administer the plant.
BSI did not name the company operating the plant nor when the attack took place. In addition, it said it did not know who was behind the attack nor what motivated it.
The attack is one of only a few on industrial systems known to have caused damage. The most widely known example of such an attack involved the Stuxnet worm which damaged centrifuges being used by Iran in its nuclear enrichment programme.
Benjamin Sonntag, a software developer and digital rights activist, told Reuters: "We do not expect a nuclear power plant or steel plant to be connected to the internet.
"To be computerised, but to be connected to the internet and to be hackable - that is quite unexpected," he said.

South Korea nuclear plant hit by hacker

Computers at a nuclear power plant in South Korea have been compromised by a hacker, but the plant's operator says no critical data has been leaked.
The hacker was able to access blueprints, floor maps and other information on the plant, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday. Using a Twitter account called "president of anti-nuclear reactor group," the hacker has released a total of four postings of the leaked data since December 15, each one revealing internal designs and manuals of the Gori-2 and Wolsong-1 nuclear reactors run by Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP), Yonhap added. The hacker has threatened to leak further information unless the reactors are shut down.
KHNP has insisted that the leaked information is not critical and does not undermine the safety of the reactors. The company also played down the threat of any type of cyberattack, saying that the reactors' controllers are protected because they're not linked to any external networks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The hacking against KHNP nuclear plants occurs in the midst of a major hack against Sony Pictures over its movie "The Interview," a comedy about an assassination attempt against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The FBI has accused North Korea of orchestrating the Sony hack, though the country has denied any involvement. As a further response, North Korea suggested a joint investigation into the hack with the US but then accused the US of being involved in the making of the film, according to The Guardian.
Despite the increased tension, no fingers have been pointed at North Korea for the hacking against the KHNP power plants. An official at KHNP told Reuters that the hacking appeared to be the work of "elements who want to cause social unrest," but added that he had no one specific in mind.
Government officials looking into the incident were able to trace the hacker's IP address to a PC located in a specific location, Yonhap said. Investigators have been sent to the location as well as to the plant's reactors to probe further.