Critical Infrastructure

How the Duqu Authors May Have Erred

Duqu has been called the spawn of Stuxnet, or maybe some sort of stepchild or second cousin. That initial analysis came from some similarities in the code of the two attack tools, and now that researchers have had more time to pull Duqu apart and see how it works, it seems more and more likely that the two were written by the same group. In the second part of an interview with Costin Raiu, who has done a lot of research on Duqu, Threatpost editor Dennis Fisher talks with Raiu about the similarities to Stuxnet, the targets for Duqu and why the authors may have made a key mistake.

Anatomy of the Duqu Attacks

Stuxnet has become the bogeyman of Internt security and cyberwar, showing up in marketing pitches, PowerPoint presentations and press releases from Washington to Silicon Valley to Tehran. But while Stuxnet has been garnering headlines for more than a year now, the far more serious threat in terms of potential long-term damage has turned out to be Duqu. The malware first came to light in September, but it may have been circulating four or five months before that. Its customizable, modular architecture has been a challenge for researchers seeking to understand its operation and its creators’ intentions. Threatpost editor Dennis Fisher spoke with Costin Raiu, one of the main researchers working on Duqu at Kaspersky Lab, about the relationship between Stuxnet and Duqu, the possible identity of the attackers and the investigation into its architecture.

Hacker Says Texas Town Used Three Character Password To Secure Internet Facing SCADA System

In an e-mail interview with Threatpost, the hacker who compromised software used to manage water infrastructure for South Houston, Texas, said the district had HMI (human machine interface) software used to manage water and sewage infrastructure accessible to the Internet and used a password that was just three characters long to protect the system, making it easy picking for a remote attack.

Hacker Claims He Breached Texas Water Plant

by Brian Prince

A hacker claims to have breached a water utility in Texas and has posted reputed screenshots online to prove it.The water plant targeted by the hacker, who uses the alias “Pr0f”, is in the Harris County city of South Houston. In a post on Pastebin, Pr0f said his actions were in response to what he felt were attempts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to downplay the threat of cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure in the wake of reports of an attack on a water plant in Illinois.

Water Utility Damaged by Cyberattack

by Brian Donohue
5

An electronic attack believed to emanate from computers in Russia reportedly destroyed a water pump belonging to an unnamed, Springfield, Illinois water utility earlier this month after hackers gained unauthorized access to that company’s industrial control system, according to published reports. 

Citing Crisis, Senate Leader Puts Cybersecurity Bill On 2012 Agenda

by Paul Roberts
3

Citing a looming crisis over lax computer security, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday that the Senate will debate cybersecurity legislation. The move comes despite the lack of a coherent Senate plan and could set up a showdown with House Republicans over the government’s role in forcing industry to strengthen cyber protections, according to a report by The Hill.

New Flaw in BIND Causing Server Crashes

by Dennis Fisher

There’s a new vulnerability in the popular BIND name server software that is causing various versions of the application to crash unexpectedly after logging a certain kind of error. The Internet Software Consortium, which maintains BIND, is investigating the issue and trying to determine the severity of the problem.

Key House Hearing on SOPA Bill Set For Today

by Dennis Fisher
1

All eyes will be on Capitol Hill this morning when the House Judiciary Committee holds a key hearing on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, which has drawn wide opposition from a variety of groups and companies for its broad language supposedly designed to prevent copyright infringement. The bill, which has been revised a number of times, could have wide-ranging effects on the way the Internet works.

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