Israel Defended Against a “Very Serious Cyber-attack” on Power Infrastructure - Binary Defense

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Threat Watch Israel Defended Against a “Very Serious Cyber-attack” on Power Infrastructure

Israel Defended Against a “Very Serious Cyber-attack” on Power Infrastructure

According to the country of Israel’s Energy Minister, Israel detected a “very serious cyber-attack” that they were able to defend against. The attack was combatted a few months ago and represented one of the very few serious cyber-attacks the country has seen. The attack was an attempt to infiltrate, paralyze, and take over one of the many power stations. Israel works closely with the United States to perfect security plans for several critical infrastructure sectors with a heavy focus on the power industry. Attacks towards power industries, especially nuclear, would have devastating effects if they were successful. Israel stated they have a very good cyber center that monitors and defends both government and privately-owned energy infrastructure. At this time, there has been no indication of which threat actor may have been behind the attack or more in-depth details on how the attacks were carried out.

ANALYST NOTES

It is not uncommon for countries’ energy infrastructure to be the target of a cyber-attack. Critical infrastructure industries are of very high value to nation-state threat actors for potential use in cyber warfare. As with most attacks like this, Israel will likely never release details of how the attack was carried out or who was behind the attack. If too much information was released, they may lose their ability to track the threat actor behind the attack or show other threat actors where they are susceptible to being attacked. Whether it is a country or private organization, this attack outlines just how important it is to have skilled security analysts constantly monitoring infrastructure, especially critical infrastructure.
More information on the attack can be found here: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Energy-minister-Israel-prevented-cyber-attack-on-power-plant-615802