U.S. agencies and those from allied countries have released a fact sheet titled “Defending OT Operations Against Ongoing Pro-Russia Hacktivist Activity” to warn critical infrastructure organizations regarding recent cyber operations carried out by pro-Russian hacktivists against operational technologies.
Although malicious activity has been monitored since 2022, according to National Security Agency Director of Cybersecurity Dave Luber, 2024 has seen an expansion to encompass vulnerable industrial control systems in North America and Europe, the NSA reports in a press release issued Wednesday.
Luber called on OT administrators to enhance the cybersecurity posture of their organizations by implementing the mitigations put forward by the fact sheet. These recommendations include the implementation of multifactor authentication for OT networks, the hardening of human-machine interfaces and the limiting of OT system exposure to the internet.
The fact sheet was co-authored by the NSA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
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