Critical infrastructure depends on interconnected operational systems, where cyber incidents can disrupt essential services, safety, and availability.
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Background for this topic.
Critical infrastructure includes systems and assets vital for public health, safety, and economic stability, such as power grids, water treatment, transportation networks, and healthcare facilities. These systems often combine physical components with industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) that manage essential services in real time.
From an information-security perspective, critical infrastructure faces risks like unauthorized access to control systems, disruption of service availability, and manipulation of sensor data. Defending these assets requires specialized security measures tailored to ICS environments, including network segmentation, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring for anomalies. Ensuring resilience also involves coordinated efforts between operators and government agencies to address vulnerabilities unique to legacy systems and proprietary protocols.
Onur Aksoy, the CEO of a group of companies controlling multiple online storefronts, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for selling $100 million worth of counterfeit Cisco network equipment to government, health, education, and military organizations worldwide. [...]
The US government is warning that pro-Russian hacktivists are seeking out and hacking into unsecured operational technology (OT) systems used to disrupt critical infrastructure operations. [...]
UnitedHealth confirms that Change Healthcare's network was breached by the BlackCat ransomware gang, who used stolen credentials to log into the company's Citrix remote access service, which did not have multi-factor authentication enabled. [...]