DHS: Cyberattack on the Ukraine Power Grid Could Happen Here

urbans/Shutterstock.com

“This type of attack can happen in any critical infrastructure company across all sectors," a high-ranking cybersecurity official says.

A type of cyberattack that recently turned off the lights in Ukraine could bring any vital U.S. sector to its knees, cautioned a top Homeland Security Department official.

After leveraging a cribbed password, a group of unidentified hackers Dec. 23, 2015, knocked out power to 225,000 of the foreign country's customers for up to 6 hours.

"Don't be deceived that this was only an electrical sector issue,” said Ret. Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill, DHS deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications. “This type of attack can happen in any critical infrastructure company across all sectors.”

The perpetrators used stolen credentials to remotely access power company networks, Touhill said Tuesday afternoon at the Billington Cybersecurity International Summit.

“It’s the old username and password as the front door,” he said. “They got into the administrative networks and then the administrative networks were linked in with the industrial control systems," a common technical setup in industries with computerized back office systems.

The bad guys not only caused a blackout in Ukraine; they blunted efforts to restore power at the three affected electricity firms. The victims caught on to their tactics, but only after reverting to manual operations.

"This was an actual dogfight between the electrical company operators and the hackers," Touhill said.

One employee pulled out his Android smartphone and filmed a computer screen with a cursor moving seemingly of its own accord across the display, Touhill said. The adversary had gained control of the system. But score one for the good guys -- that hacked computer was a decoy.

"The bad guy didn't know that that particular one wasn't hooked up," Touhill said. The unknowing attacker was trying in vain to flick switches on an offline system.

After the attack ended, DHS analysts in January traveled to the scenes of the crime, where they saw evidence that some power supplies “were toasted" and hackers had crippled an emergency contact center to foil first responders, Touhill said.

The telephone center could not receive calls from "the guys in the bucket trucks” that would normally descend on substations to manually regain control of power operations, he explained.

The call center shutdown demonstrated the level of consciousness and forethought of the attackers, Touhill said.

Timeline of the Dec. 23, 2015, Cyber-Induced Ukraine Blackout

  • 2:30 p.m. Cyberattacks begin
  • 3:30 p.m. Power loss at one electricity company
  • 3:31 p.m.  Power goes out at another  distributor
  • 4:06 p.m. The third company loses power
  • 5:00 p.m. Telephone denial of service attack prevents companies and customers from reporting problems
  • 6:00 p.m. Data center power cut by attackers
  • Within 4 to 6 hours, all power in the affected areas was restored --  by switching to manual control

Each observed trick could have been stifled by security controls long used by some U.S. enterprises, Touhill said.

The protections he cited include "multifactor" logins that require another form of ID besides a password, as well as the separation of control system networks from administrative networks.

Touhill also recommended restricting the ability to remotely access industrial systems and testing contingency procedures, including scenarios where an organization is forced to work under unsafe operations.

"BlackEnergy,” a type of spyware Russian hackers have previously used to target energy control systems, was present on the victims' networks, but Touhill stressed, “We haven't seen any indication that shows that the BlackEnergy contributed to this particular attack.”

A March 18 analysis of the outage by the SANS Industrial Control Systems Team, a consortium of information security experts, suggests that the attackers used BlackEnergy as one component to gain a foothold in victim IT environments.

It is doubtful BlackEnergy aided in the credential theft, Touhill told Nextgov after the speech.

“The role of BlackEnergy in this is very uncertain," he said. "My teams and I haven't seen sufficient evidence for us to draw that conclusion."

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.