Power Utilities

With his electric Kia EV6 running low on power, an EV driver pulled into a bank of fast-chargers near Terre Haute, Indiana, to plug in.  As his car powered up, he peeked at nearby chargers.  One in particular stood out.  Instead of the businesslike w

With a central role in modern electrical systems, digital substations are of particular interest to cybercriminals.  Their use of Ethernet communications to transfer information between substations and utility enterprise systems makes them more vulne

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced on 20 January 2022, to strengthen its Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards by requiring internal network security monitoring (INSM) for high and medium impact bulk

With the ability to largely secure critical infrastructure from ground level attacks and a current strong focus on cybersecurity, a potential new attack vector from the air is being presented with the wide availability of citizen drones.

Originally r

"They went after our gas and they went after our hot dogs.  No one is out of bounds here. Everyone is in play here," warned Christopher Krebs, former director of cybersecurity at Department of Homeland Security.  From natural phenomena to cyberattack

The world seems to be getting more perilous day by day.  Many nations are being hit with an epidemic fueled by a virus, but it is not COVID-19. Ransomware in the US has already raised the prices of beef and gas nationwide, and now federal officials a

Critical infrastructure in any country relies on energy sources and transmission for proper and safe national operations.  A direct cyber shot was delivered to the US oil and gas industry, allegedly by a Russian criminal group known as DarkSide.  Dar

The current US administration is introducing a 100-day plan to improve cybersecurity and address cyber threats across the nation's electrical grid.  Officials state the program is part of a broader cybersecurity plan designed to address issues across

Red Sky Alliance analysts have read that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Siemens Energy announced a new collaboration to create a Center of Excellence regarding industrial cybersecurity monitoring, research and innovation center, that will co

The electric grid is so important to any country’s national security and thus the high importance of keeping the electricity flowing.  Even an outage of only a few minutes can wreak havoc on any residence or business.  Cyber attackers responsible for

A US federal executive order was issued on 1 May 2020 which proposes to “monitor and replace” any US power grid equipment made by its foreign adversaries.  Security professional said it would mainly affect Chinese-made products like electrical transf

Red Sky Alliance has written extensively about China regarding their many aspects of the Belt and Road Initiative; most recently about its creation of their “new” Internet.[1]  The US think-tank Brookins Institute has provided an excellent report on

The large organization responsible for overseeing the operations of Europe’s high voltage power infrastructure was recently hacked.   ENTSO-E, formed in 2008, handles 42 Transmission System Operators (TSOs) which connects 35 European Union member sta

As time marches on, many are forgetting the two Russian attacks on Ukraine that shut down their power supply during their cold winters.  Memories fade, but the energy threat continues.  Total shut-down of the electric grid were traditionally rare and

Our colleagues at Wired.com shared interesting information on Iranian “password spraying.”   In the wake of the US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and the retaliatory missile strike that followed, Iran-watchers have warned that the

MSSP Alert is posting that last August 2019, Proofpoint researchers reported that three small US utilities had been hit with spear phishing attacks in July utilizing the LookBack malware.  The malicious emails appeared to impersonate a US-based engin

The Securing Energy Infrastructure Act, which passed as part of the United States FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act, pursues the development of defenses through partnerships between US National Laboratories[1] and the critical Energy Sector. 

A floating nuclear power plant has been connected to the Russian electric power grid and has commenced electricity energy for the first time in a remote region of Russia. 

• The vessel Akademik Lomonosov set sail from the port of Murmansk in August. 
• T

Summary:
From a threat perspective, researchers[1] expect cyber-attacks to continue into 2020, as it is getting easier for hackers to attack these systems because they are more exposed to the public Internet.  Not just nation state hackers, but crimi

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has reported that malware attributed to North Korean threat actors was found on the administrative network of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. Although NPCIL has assured partners that the powe