May 1, 2024 at 03:19PM
Pro-Russia hacktivists are targeting unsecured operational technology (OT) systems, aiming to disrupt critical infrastructure operations. The advisory, issued by multiple US govt agencies, warns about the potential physical threats posed by these actors. Recent attacks have caused some disruption, with a pro-Russian hacktivist group, the Cyber Army of Russia, claiming responsibility for attacks on water treatment and processing plants. The advisory provides steps to mitigate these attacks and improve cybersecurity posture.
Based on the information provided, the key takeaways from the meeting notes are as follows:
1. The US government has issued a joint advisory warning about pro-Russian hacktivists targeting unsecured operational technology (OT) systems used in critical infrastructure operations.
2. The advisory involves multiple US government agencies and international cybersecurity organizations, including CISA, FBI, NSA, EPA, DOE, USDA, FDA, MS-ISAC, CCCS, and NCSC-UK.
3. Pro-Russian hacktivists have been targeting insecure and misconfigured OT devices mainly through the use of VNC protocols to access human machine interfaces (HMIs) and make changes to the underlying OT systems.
4. The Cyber Army of Russia, a pro-Russian hacktivist group, has claimed responsibility for attacks on water treatment and processing plants in Texas and Indiana, as well as water infrastructure in Poland and France.
5. The advisory provides recommendations for mitigating attacks on OT devices, including putting HMIs behind firewalls, hardening VNC installations, enabling multifactor authentication, applying security updates, changing default passwords, and improving the overall security posture of IT environments.
6. NSA’s Director of Cybersecurity strongly recommends critical infrastructure organizations’ OT administrators to implement the outlined mitigations, especially changing default passwords, to enhance their cybersecurity posture and reduce vulnerability to such targeting.
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