Authorities have been warned by U.S. government cyber security officials regarding an increase in attacks that penetrate industrial control system networks. Due to their connection to the internet, these industrial control systems, which control operations of industrial processes “from energy plants and steel mills to cookie factories and breweries,” are very vulnerable to being hacked.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT, helps U.S. firms investigate potential cyberattacks on these industrial control systems and explain the “interest in critical infrastructure security has surged since late last month when Ukraine authorities blamed a power outage on a cyberattack from Russia, which would make it the first known power outage caused by a cyberattack.” With more and more people gaining access to these control systems, the loss potential from an attack could be devastating, according to ICS-CERT.