Two events dominated the IoT and OT cyber threat landscape last week. We saw a large-scale attempt made by some hackers to divert traffic from residential complexes across the US, Europe, and APAC. This coordinated effort seemed to be done to divert traffic to intercept and examine relevant packets of traffic. In the long term, such snooping attacks will lead to the compromise of enterprise networks.
The second incident of concern involves the rise of guided ransomware attacks. These involve an insider guiding the hackers, sharing information on a vulnerability or a vulnerable device or network, or open port for hackers to exploit. Though similar in objective to dead drops, guided ransomware attacks involve communication between the hackers and the insider and more effort from the insider.
Many regulators have issued advisories for businesses to stay alert over the next 20-25 days. Sectrio had also issued an advisory for financial services institutions and manufacturing entities. On the IoT and OT cybersecurity front, we advise businesses that are using a mix of industrial control systems built before the year 2010 and those running remote projects with less than 1000 IoT devices to be on their guard. This week will also be critical for utility and oil pipeline companies as attacks on them are expected to grow significantly.
We Urge all to stay safe and secure in the coming weeks.
Weekly advisory
Segments under this list must be on high alert in the coming weeks:
- Financial Services
- Manufacturing
- Critical Infrastructure
- Water and wastewater treatment facilities
- Supply chains
- Energy Sector
- Oil and gas
- Utility entities
- Maritime agencies
- Healthcare
- Government Agencies