Recently, a major Canadian company suffered a targeted ransomware attack and was forced to pay $425,000 to restore the encrypted data of both its production base and back-up servers. We have spoken and warned of ransomware in the past, particularly in the aftermath of the...
Recently, Waterfall announced a global partnership with intelligence-led security company FireEye, in a push to deliver comprehensive cybersecurity solutions for businesses with industrial sites. The partnership seamlessly integrates FireEye’s cloud-based Threat Analytics Platform (TAP) with reliability-critical and safety-critical industrial control system (ICS) networks via Waterfall’s...
Recent reports of cyber attacks on U.S. nuclear reactors have brought upon public doubt on the strength of cyber protections at nuclear power plants. The response from nuclear plants has resoundingly been "no need to panic, nothing to see here," but other pundits are saying...
I recently attended the NERC CIP Emerging Technologies Round Table meeting on Cloud & IoT, where a primary focus was Bulk Electric System (BES) Cyber Systems in the cloud. BES Cyber Systems are systems with an adverse effect on the BES within 15 minutes of...
If hindsight is 20/20, then disaster prevention usually gets fine-tuned only after the most unfortunate events occur. Such is the overarching objective of the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf-Blowout Preventer Systems...
Guest blog The recent WannaCry/WannaCrypt, attacks received global attention in the news and social media. Its widespread impact and rapid propagation shocked and scared people around the world. Concern was amplified by reports that it involved a stolen NSA exploit (EternalBlue). Existing Microsoft patches for the...
A short while back, I was asked to speak at an event held by The Cyber Resilient Energy Delivery Consortium (CREDC), a research and development initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Its research focuses on cybersecurity and cyber-resiliency of energy delivery systems for...
Guest Blog To the non-expert, cyber security can look tantalizingly simple: Just put a guard in front of your stuff and use it to keep the bad guys out. This observation tracks closely with the non-computing analogy of facility entry guards, a favorite comparison brought up...
Recently, Waterfall joined 24 vendors from Industrie 4.0 (I4.0) and the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) in demonstrating secure cloud interconnectivity at the Hannover Messe industrial event. Unidirectional gateway technology and strong encryption was at the heart of this outsourced security demo, illustrating how to benefit...
When covering for risk, best practice teaches us to categorize, measure and profile our vulnerabilities. Intel - the world’s largest and most highly valued semiconductor chip maker and inventor of the processors found in most personal computers - knows this process well. Countless tests are...