Dive Brief:
- Foreign hackers are increasingly targeting control systems of critical infrastructure sectors, and according to the head of the National Security Administration now have the technical capability to inflict significant damage, E&E Publishing reports.
- Admiral Michael Rogers, who heads the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, told lawmakers there has been a rise in cyber attacks and that "reconaissance" appears to be the current motivation as hackers seek to better understand U.S. control systems.
- The Ranking Member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Charles Albert Ruppersberger III (D-Md.), called the utility sector's cyber security an "Achilles heel" of the United States and called for Congress to act.
Dive Insight:
The head of the NSA told lawmakers that hackers have demonstrated they have the ability to infiltrate and crash utility control systems. Thus far it appears the incursions are largely to gather information, but the revelations illustrate the vulnerability of critical control systems.
"What we think we are seeing is reconnaissance by many of those actors in an attempt to ensure they understand our systems, so that they can then, if they choose, exploit the vulnerability within those control systems," Rogers said at a Nov. 20 hearing on cybersecurity threats.
According to Ruppersberger, the Department of Homeland Security reported responded to 198 cyber incidents across all critical infrastructure sectors in 2012.
"Of these, 40% were in the energy sector. The energy sector continues to bear the brunt of our country’s cyber attacks because hackers recognize that the energy sector is our country’s Achilles Heel," Ruppersberger said.
