Russians Who Pose Election Threat Have Hacked Nuclear Plants and Power Grid

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Cybersecurity officials watched with growing alarm in September as Russian state hackers started prowling around dozens of American state and local government computer systems just two months before the election.

The act itself did not worry them so much — officials anticipated that the Russians who interfered in the 2016 election would be back — but the actor did. The group, known to researchers as “Dragonfly” or “Energetic Bear” for its hackings of the energy sector, was not involved in 2016 election hacking. But it has in the past five years breached the power grid, water treatment facilities and even nuclear power plants, including one in Kansas.

It also hacked into Wi-Fi systems at San Francisco International Airport and at least two other West Coast airports in March in an apparent bid to find one unidentified traveler, a demonstration of the hackers’ power and resolve.

September’s intrusions marked the first time that researchers caught the group, a unit of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, targeting states and counties. The timing of the attacks so close to the election and the potential for disruption set off concern inside private security firms, law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-pose-election-threat-hacked-135806239.html

[mzmolly]

1. And Republicans blocked the funding

and infrastructure to stop this shit.

[captain queeg]

2. If that is the guys who hacked the power grid it is scary. Pretty sophisticated.

[foo_fighter999]

14. Make no mistake about it. The Russian hacker groups are very, VERY sophisticated.

I have no doubt that they have been crawling around our networks gunning for our election systems for some time now. I suspect that by this time, they have their tools in place and are just waiting for the go-ahead to trigger them. Note: they may not get the green light to do so but I guess that will be up to Putin. From the article:

Likewise, the experts said, if former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, is elected, Russia may try to use its foothold in the systems to weaken or delegitimize him, or it may hold back so as not to provoke the new administration.

“By doing this more quietly, you give yourself more options,” Spaulding said.

Quietly crawling around the network without calling attention to yourself while you locate your targets and find a way to infiltrate them is SOP for Russian (and other nation-state) hacker groups. While I'm fairly confident that (most) local election officials as well as the national intelligence agencies are well aware of the threat these groups pose to our election systems and have taken steps to secure them, these types of attacks are also very hard to defend against as all it takes is one weak link in the chain for the adversary to gain access. Add in the fact that we are behind the curve when it comes to cyber security and that leaves us vulnerable to attacks, not just during an election cycle but every single day. That said, I'm pretty sure that Joe is aware of this and will take steps to improve our cyber security posture once he is in office.

[NightWatcher]

3. So when the power goes out on Election Day and polls aren't running

and lines of citizens begin to panic, that the gop knew this was coming and refused to defend us against this.

[triron]

6. Now that sounds like a both plausible and ominous scenario! Damn the pukes to hell.

[bdamomma]

11. scary

I wouldn't put it past them. To burn our country down, but we can play the same game.

[Iliyah]

4. Russia is going to shut down the USA? . . .

When Biden/Harris wins

[ret5hd]

5. No, create chaos during election...

so it will be impossible to prove Biden won.

[Iwasthere]

7. Backup power in the larger ones established I suspect

We need volunteers to bring in backup power to the smaller sites, and just keep voting.

[Thekaspervote]

9. Of course back up generators are common in many bldgs

[Thekaspervote]

8. remember... Putin knows we have the same capabilities...

[SoonerPride]

10. But our government is aiding Russia

And not defending us.

They won’t retaliate if Russia turns off the power in blue states and major urban areas

They will applaud

[Thekaspervote]

12. Think about that for a minute. We will have a huge lead going into election day

why would the Russians sabotage Election Day knowing the gop intend to vote in bigger numbers than dems. They know what’s happening.

It’s much harder to steal an election than one might think using those kinds of attacks

[CabalPowered]

13. This is a very strange development..

"It also hacked into Wi-Fi systems at San Francisco International Airport and at least two other West Coast airports in March in an apparent bid to find one unidentified traveler.. "

[foo_fighter999]

15. Yeah, that line stood out for me also.

From the article:

Officials at San Francisco International Airport discovered Russia’s state hackers had breached the online system that airport employees and travelers used to gain access to the airport’s Wi-Fi. The hackers injected code into two Wi-Fi portals that stole visitors’ user names, cracked their passwords and infected their laptops.

At that point, they could have pwned all the visitors but, from the sounds of it, they had only one target in mind. Further in the article:

“Ostensibly, hundreds of thousands of people could have been compromised,” said Eric Chien, a cybersecurity director at Symantec, who examined the attack. “But only 10 were.”

Chien’s team discovered that the hackers were “fingerprinting” the machines of anyone who logged onto the Wi-Fi network in search of one older version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. If they found a match, the hackers infected those laptops. If the Wi-Fi visitors used any other browser, the hackers left them alone.

“From what we could see, they were going after a specific individual,” Chien said.

Interesting. I wonder who they were after.