Russian hackers have developed a new weapon in the form of a new malware family directly targeting systems that operate the U.S. electricity grid.
According to this Washington Post article, researchers from Dragos Inc and ESET identified the new threat that is being called CrashOverride. So far the malware has only disrupted the power grid of one energy system in the Ukrane, but with modifications it could be weaponized and used to target the U.S. according to Sergio Caltagirone, director of threat intelligence for Dragos Inc. “It’s the culmination of over a decade of theory and attack scenarios,” Caltagirone warned. “It’s a game changer.” That attack, which left 225,000 customers without power, was carried out by Russian government hackers, according to US research groups..
Dragos Inc is calling the hacking group that created the new malware “Electrum.”