Breaking: US Power Plants Under Cyber Attack From Russia

7/1/2014

Security researches on Monday confirmed that a vicious new cyber–attack has hit over 1,000 organizations in 84 countries. “Energetic Bear” is a Stux-net like malware targeting energy and utility companies and is “almost certainly from Russia.”

This is scary stuff. Not only has the attack been going on for 18 months; it appears to be focused on targets in the United States and Europe.

According to the Financial Times, the malware “allows its operators to monitor energy consumption in real time, or to cripple physical systems such as wind turbines, gas pipelines and power plants at will.” This is exactly the kind of attack the government has been worried about.

Symantec says that the group of attackers – dubbed Dragonfly – is almost certainly “based in eastern Europe and has all the markings of being state sponsored.”

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