ICS-CERT Cautions about Gas Pipeline Companies of USA being Targeted with Spear-Phishing

The U.S. ICS-CERT is cautioning of one live "spear phishing" scam that's aiming attack on enterprises within the sector for natural gas distribution. Computerworld.com published this on May 7, 2012.

The ICS-CERT lately released an advisory, according to which, the Team had got information regarding personalized assaults as well as hacking incidents at many of the enterprises recently. It seemed, according to the agency that the assaults began during late-December 2011.

Chairman Jesse Hurley of the North American Energy Standards Board's Critical Infrastructure Committee, who's also Shift Systems' CEO said that the majority of the conduit builders within USA was encountering the spear-phishing assaults, adding that they'd never occurred earlier. Incidentally, Shift Systems runs the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) associated with USA's complete power grid. Cnet.com published this on May 7, 2012.

In the meantime, according to ICS-CERT, a study of the cyber-attacks showed that they were most certainly executed through one single scam.

Furthermore, the Team stated that the study indicated the personalized, spear-phishing attacks aimed at various kinds of employees working for the companies, but those targeted seemed as being an exclusive number. Besides, the e-mails were so crafted that they looked like being dispatched from some trustworthy employee within the companies, it added.

Nevertheless, the ICS-CERT didn't spot the enterprises' rivals. The agency had attempted at finding the means for spotting as also eliminating the malicious software.

Sources suggested that ICS-CERT had carried out many briefings nationwide for telling its experience about the hacking operations, asset-owners encountered. The agency would keep on collaborating with government associates and the private sector for tackling the above and other kinds of online dangers, they indicated.

Peter Boogaard Spokesman of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that the ICS-CERT, ever-since March 2012, had teamed up with private firms that were in the business of oil-and-gas. Scmagazine.com.au published this on May 8, 2012.

Boogaard further stated that the DHS was collaborating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as other federal agencies, while ICS-CERT had joined the affected companies towards planning for identification, lessening and stopping the above spear-phishing attacks.

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