The Government has Put our Nation’s Critical Infrastructure Operators on Alert
As tensions between Russia and the rest of the world heighten with the invasion of Ukraine and the economic sanctions against Russia, the Biden Administration is warning of potential cyberattacks against U.S. organizations. In the past year, cyberattacks from Russian hackers have crippled critical infrastructure organizations – the upcoming anniversary of the Colonial Pipeline attack and the recent indictments by the Dept. of Justice regarding Russian hacking actors is a sobering reminder that these warnings should be taken seriously!
The increase in cyber-physical devices – managed and unmanaged connected to enterprise networks along with interconnectivity between networks is at an all-time high. IT/OT systems convergence has become the norm. A cyberattack could endanger citizens through the operational downtime in lifeline services such as water, power, communications, financial services, and healthcare services.
As a result, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has organized a repository of advisories, guidance, services, and response processes as part of the Shields Up initiative. Specific CISA recommendations include actively hunting for Russian tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) within your networks, watching for any anomalous behavior in ICS/OT devices, and keeping reporting thresholds low to promptly share threat intelligence with other organizations.