White hat hackers recently won $40,000 for cracking a system used by most major industrial companies, including the ones that manage our power grids, and they told MIT Technology Review it was extremely easy. The challenge was to hack industrial control systems, specifically the hardware and software used to control power grids, water treatment facilities, and other critical infrastructure.
Because so many people rely on this infrastructure, hackers can ask for and receive large ransoms in exchange for ending an attack. Those motivated by politics, meanwhile, can weaken an enemy by disrupting its citizens’ access to electricity or water.
“As the destruction or corruption of these control systems could cause grave harm, ensuring their security and resilience must be a collective effort that taps into the innovation, expertise, and ingenuity of the [industrial control systems] community,” said the director of the US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).[1]
So, one way to protect industrial control systems (and other tech) from hackers is by holding contests in which “white hat” hackers try to break into the systems in exchange for prizes. Any vulnerabilities that are exposed during the contests can then be fixed before cybercriminals exploit them.
One of these contests called Pwn2Own Miami 2022 just took place 19-21 April and the results are not exactly encouraging for those of us who like reliable electricity and water: nearly every industrial control system targeted during the contest was hacked.
Two Dutch researchers took home the biggest prize of the event of $40,000USD for hacking OPC UA, a communications protocol commonly used by industrial companies. “OPC UA is used everywhere in the industrial world as a connector between systems,” the White Hats told MIT Tech Review. “It’s such a central component of typical industrial networks, and we can bypass authentication normally required to read or change anything.” The two needed “just a couple of days” to figure out their hack of the industrial control system — for comparison, they spent three weeks working with a partner to hack an iPhone 4S in 2012. “In industrial control systems, there is still so much low-hanging fruit,” they said. “The security is lagging behind badly.”
Now What? Since the latest Pwn2Own contest is over, the makers of the industrial control systems targeted during it can work to fix any vulnerabilities detected by the hackers. “We saw some amazing exploits, and I know vendors are already hard at work developing patches for the bugs we disclosed to them,” said the host of the event. “We are pleased with the growth we saw this year, and we’d love to see that continue. Ideally, we can partner with more vendors within the ICS/SCADA community to ensure we have the right targets and get them the best bugs possible to fix before they are exploited by threat actors,” he added.
Red Sky Alliance is a Cyber Threat Analysis and Intelligence Service organization. For questions, comments or assistance, please contact the office directly at 1-844-492-7225, or feedback@wapacklabs.com
Weekly Cyber Intelligence Briefings:
- Reporting: https://www.redskyalliance.org/
- Website: https://www.wapacklabs.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/64265941
Weekly Cyber Intelligence Briefings:
REDSHORTS - Weekly Cyber Intelligence Briefings:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5504229295967742989
[1] https://www.freethink.com/technology/industrial-control-systems
Comments