{"id":10528,"date":"2016-01-08T11:40:46","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T17:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=10528"},"modified":"2016-01-08T11:40:46","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T17:40:46","slug":"the-russians-just-did-a-cyber-attack-practice-run-on-ukraines-nationwide-power-grid-america-is-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/08\/the-russians-just-did-a-cyber-attack-practice-run-on-ukraines-nationwide-power-grid-america-is-next\/","title":{"rendered":"The Russians Just Did a Cyber-Attack Practice Run on Ukraine&#8217;s Nationwide Power Grid&#8230;America is Next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The Russians are masters of 4th Generation Warfare. They know the United States must be attacked on several fronts to weaken it internally before a Conventional strike happens. Look for continued attacks on the Financial sector as well.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>A Nationwide Cyber-Attack on a Power Grid is now a stark reality folks. IMO it is not a question of how but just WHEN something like this will happen in the U.S.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong> Prepare Now, it could be a long, DARK 2016. -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-10529\" src=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/01\/defense-large-2.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"defense-large (2)\" width=\"620\" height=\"284\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<div class=\"d1-title-container\">\n<div class=\"d1-subhead-container\">\n<p class=\"d1-subhead\"><span class=\"outer\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"inner-inner\">It\u2019s a scenario that has long worried cyber security experts.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"d1-subhead\"><strong>Experts say they have established the world\u2019s <\/strong>first known case of a cyber attack on a power grid, which cut power to more than 600,000 homes in Ukraine in late December. <span class=\"caps\">US<\/span>intelligence agencies and cyber security experts are looking to Russia as the likely source of the\u00a0attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<aside class=\"d1-inline-subscribe-container newsletter\">\n<h3 class=\"d1-inline-subscribe-title\"><\/h3>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Prykarpattyaoblenergo, an energy company in the Ivano-Frankisvk region of western Ukraine, said on Dec. 23 that a blackout in a large part of the area where it delivers electricity was caused by an \u201cinterference\u201d in its\u00a0systems.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine\u2019s security service and government blamed Russia for the attack, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mobile.reuters.com\/article\/idUSKBN0UE0ZZ20151231\">launched an investigation<\/a>. According to Shane Harris\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2016\/01\/06\/exclusive-cia-eyes-russian-hackers-in-blackout-attack.html\">at <em>The Daily Beast<\/em><\/a>, experts at the <span class=\"caps\">CIA<\/span>, National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security are also investigating whether samples of malware recovered from the company\u2019s network indicate that the blackout was caused by hacking and whether it can be traced back to Russia. If confirmed, it would be the first international cyber attack to cause a power\u00a0outage.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Jan. 4, researchers from the global cyber security company iSIGHT and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.welivesecurity.com\/2016\/01\/04\/blackenergy-trojan-strikes-again-attacks-ukrainian-electric-power-industry\/\">antivirus firm <span class=\"caps\">ESET<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>claimed they had samples of the malicious code that affected three of the region\u2019s power companies, causing \u201cdestructive events,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/security\/2016\/01\/first-known-hacker-caused-power-outage-signals-troubling-escalation\/\">Ars Technica reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a scenario that has long worried cyber security experts. \u201cIt\u2019s a milestone because we\u2019ve definitely seen targeted destructive events against energy before\u2014oil firms, for instance\u2014but never the event which causes the blackout,\u201d John Hultquist, director of cyber espionage analysis at iSIGHT told Ars\u00a0Technica.<\/p>\n<div id=\"defenseone-instream-ad\" class=\"ad ad-defenseone-instream hidemobile hidetablet\">Experts say that the malware they found is a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/america.aljazeera.com\/watch\/shows\/america-tonight\/articles\/2015\/2\/5\/blackenergy-malware-cyberwarfare.html\">virus called BlackEnergy<\/a>, which has been used in the past to sabotage companies and news organizations, including in the <span class=\"caps\">US<\/span>. The virus has since been updated, acquiring new malicious\u00a0capabilities.<\/div>\n<p>Analysts at iSIGHT say the group behind the virus, which they have called \u201cthe Sandworm gang,\u201d targeted <span class=\"caps\">NATO<\/span>, Ukraine, Poland and European industries in\u00a02014.<\/p>\n<p>Read the Original Article at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/technology\/2016\/01\/us-suspects-russian-hackers-unprecedented-ukraine-blackout\/124939\/?oref=defenseone_today_nl\">Defense One<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Russians are masters of 4th Generation Warfare. They know the United States must be attacked on several fronts to weaken it internally before a Conventional strike happens. Look for continued attacks on the Financial sector as well. A Nationwide Cyber-Attack on a Power Grid is now a stark reality folks. IMO it is not&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2280,2122,74,883,1814,2098,2426,1189,118,65,1898],"tags":[3704,3705,2779,3706,3707],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}