
Computer security firm Symantec now reports the hacker group known as Dragonfly is trying to gain control of U.S. electrical companies’ power grids.
Computer security firm Symantec revealed late last week that a hacker group known as Dragonfly 2.0 has successfully infiltrated the control systems of U.S. electrical companies.
The report states, in part:
The Dragonfly group appears to be interested in both learning how energy facilities operate and also gaining access to operational systems themselves, to the extent that the group now potentially has the ability to sabotage or gain control of these systems should it decide to do so. Symantec customers are protected against the activities of the Dragonfly group …
Symantec has strong indications of attacker activity in organizations in the U.S., Turkey, and Switzerland, with traces of activity in organizations outside of these countries. The U.S. and Turkey were also among the countries targeted by Dragonfly in its earlier campaign, though the focus on organizations in Turkey does appear to have increased dramatically in this more recent campaign …
Sabotage attacks are typically preceded by an intelligence-gathering phase where attackers collect information about target networks and systems and acquire credentials that will be used in later campaigns. The most notable examples of this are Stuxnet and Shamoon, where previously stolen credentials were subsequently used to administer their destructive payloads.
Full article: Hackers Can Now Disrupt U.S. Electrical Grid (TruNews)