It’s extremely rare for hackers, who operate in the digital world, to cause damage in the physical world. But a cyber-attack on a steel maker in Iran two weeks ago is being seen as one of those significant and troubling moments. A hacking group called Predatory Sparrow said it was behind the attack, which it said caused a serious fire, and released a video to back up its story. The video appears to be CCTV footage of the incident, showing factory workers leaving part of the plant before a machine starts spewing molten steel and fire.
“This is the age of the cyber physical attack. Convergence and transformation have presented many potential rewards to organisations. However, in many cases, the pace at which they have been deployed has outstripped the governance measures required to manage the change in risk. From a board perspective, never has there been such high levels of uncertainty in the risks organisations face.
In this example, the attacker has infiltrated the IT system, jumped into the OT and recorded it all via the Building Management System (BMS) . This is P0wnT, every realm has been compromised.”