Targeted cyber attacks on the energy industry

The energy industry is particularly worthy of protection and is subject to strict legal requirements. A failure or impairment of supply services would have an enormous impact on the economy, the state and society.

Cybercriminals are also aware of this. In addition to threat vectors such as hacked web applications, unpatched and outdated systems as well as unsecured servers, companies should particularly keep an eye on e-mail as a gateway for cyber attacks.

Email Is The Main Gateway

Hackers attempted to penetrate the systems of companies in the energy industry primarily using malicious links placed in e-mail messages. Malicious attachments and phishing emails are also among the preferred types of attack by cybercriminals. It becomes clear: Humans are the most popular IT vulnerability among hackers.

With little technical effort and social engineering tactics, the cybercriminals entice employees to click on infected links that download malware or intercept login data that open gates for hackers to carry out further attacks. Especially with the high legal IT security standards to which critical infrastructures are subject, people are often the one security gap that can destroy supposedly comprehensive protection with one click.

Behind Such Attacks Are Often Larger And Professionally Organized Hacking Teams

On behalf of governments or secret services, they want to gain access to secret information or put pressure on the affected state in the event of possible conflicts. To do this, it is often sufficient to shut down individual areas in the company, by encrypting important files. However, attacks by smaller cybercriminal gangs are also conceivable. Basically, it stands to reason that the more critical the attacked infrastructure, the higher the likelihood that those affected will pay for a decryption key in the event of a ransomware attack.