Having China, Russia, and Iran routinely rummaging around is cause for concern, says ex-NSA man
Digital intruders from China, Russia, and Iran breaking into US water systems this year should be a"wake-up call," according to former National Security Agency cyber boss Rob Joyce.
"You get the added specter of sometimes the nation state intelligence services are wrapping themselves in the cloak of anonymity of the hacktivists to go out and give it a nudge even further," Joyce told the RSA Conference."It's scary to watch." This also shows how cyberattacks can easily turn physical, noted current NSA cybersecurity director Dave Luber. In the case of the Texas water facility, the attack caused a tank to overflow – still a smaller-scale activity in terms of potential water plant attacks.
Many critical infrastructure sectors – including water and wastewater, healthcare and public health, and government facilities, especially at the state and local level – are historically under-funded and poorly secured. Many smaller municipal water plants, for example, don't have a dedicated security team, and there's often a disconnect between the OT and IT side of the business.
"What's different about Volt Typhoon is the placement, access into our critical infrastructure for the purpose of computer network attack at a time when they choose," Luber observed,"with the intent to cause societal panic, and with the intent to also have some of the impacts of cyber to physical. This is a major concern."
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