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Ransomware Group Claims Entry to SCADA in Complicated UK Water Firm Hack

By Eduard Kovacs on August 16, 2022

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A ransomware group has hit at the very least one water firm in the UK, however there may be some confusion over whose programs had been truly breached.

The Cl0p ransomware group has claimed on its Tor-based leak web site that it has breached the programs of Thames Water, which advertises itself because the UK’s largest water and wastewater firm, serving 15 million individuals.

Nevertheless, cybersecurity consultants have identified that whereas Cl0p names Thames Water on its website, the information leaked as proof of the breach truly seem to belong to a distinct water firm named South Staffordshire, whose subsidiaries, South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water, serve 1.6 million individuals and tens of 1000’s of companies within the UK.

On its web site, Cl0p names Thames Water with the corporate’s handle and income, however a cellphone quantity and a second handle proven on the identical web page belong to South Staffs Water. Some leaked paperwork additionally reference South Staffordshire and South Staffs Water.

No less than one native British information web site posted an alarmist headline — now eliminated — warning about attainable water contamination ensuing from the alleged Thames Water hack.

Thames Water issued an announcement on Tuesday saying that the media experiences are false. Additionally on Tuesday, South Staffordshire confirmed being focused by cybercriminals.

South Staffordshire offered few particulars, however mentioned the incident disrupted its company IT community and claimed that its means to produce protected water has not been affected “due to the sturdy programs and controls over water provide and high quality we’ve got in place always”.

South Staffordshire reassuring clients concerning the security of the water provide and the alarmist headlines are associated to the hackers claiming to have gained entry to the entire firm’s programs, together with SCADA (supervisory management and information acquisition) programs that, in line with the cybercriminals, “management chemical compounds in water”.

“It will be straightforward to alter chemical composition for his or her water however it is very important be aware we’re not keen on inflicting hurt to individuals,” the cybercriminals mentioned.

Two of the screenshots they revealed do present human-machine interface (HMI) programs that would doubtlessly permit somebody to tamper with industrial management programs (ICS), however some HMIs are solely used for monitoring functions. One of many screenshots reveals HMIs that appear to narrate to wastewater therapy.

Ilan Barda, CEO of OT cybersecurity agency Radiflow, has confirmed for SecurityWeek that the screenshots are from an actual HMI system and that they can be utilized to manage the chemical compounds within the water purification course of.

“Nevertheless, such chemical processes are non-linear – minor adjustments can rapidly drift the specified pH degree out of security ranges. So to keep up a usable pH degree, it’s required to have a real-time managed management loop which is finished within the PLC degree. As such configuration adjustments through the HMI will likely be detected and alerted on the PLC degree and are unlikely to trigger harm to the output water provide,” Barda defined.

“Notice nevertheless that when an attacker positive factors entry to such an inner OT pc they will additionally set up a hidden malware that may additional unfold within the inner OT community and would possibly ultimately attain property through which it might probably trigger actual harm,” he added. “So despite the fact that the location would possibly stay operational it’s extremely really helpful to carry out an in-depth cyber inspection of all of the property for such extra dormant malwares.”

The cybercriminals declare to have stolen greater than 5 Tb of data after spending months within the firm’s networks. In addition they declare that information haven’t been encrypted — as in lots of different assaults — and that the sufferer did supply to pay a ransom, however the quantity was too low.

A whole bunch of firms have been focused by the Cl0p ransomware and NCC Group reported lately that a lot of its victims are within the industrial sector. A number of individuals accused of getting some kind of position within the Cl0p operation have been arrested, however that doesn’t seem to have had a huge impact.

It’s not unusual for risk actors to focus on firms within the water sector, and ransomware teams have been recognized to entry SCADA programs in these organizations. Whereas in some circumstances the attackers won’t know an excessive amount of about how the compromised ICS works, there are some risk actors that know precisely what they’re doing.

*up to date with data from Ilan Barda

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