DHS And FIB Issue Joint Warning – Hackers Have Targeted Critical Sector Industries Since March 2016

On March 15, 2018, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a joint Technical Alert (TA18-074A) warning "network defenders" in critical sector industries that "Russian government cyber actors" have been intentionally targeting U.S. government entities and organizations in the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors since at least March 2016. These threat actors, according to the joint alert, have used this campaign to engage in reconnaissance missions and to obtain operational control of industrial control processes and systems.

The joint alert identifies two targets of the ongoing attack: "staging" and "intended" targets. Staging targets are those "peripheral organizations such as trusted third-party suppliers with less secure networks." The threat actors use the "staging" targets' networks as "pivot points and malware repositories when targeting their final