US firm: Hackers interfered with industrial facility

A U.S. cybersecurity firm says that hackers disrupted the operations at an industrial facility using malicious software which interfered with safety equipment.

Milpitas, California-based FireEye Inc. provided a technical breakdown of the hack but provided few further details about the incident, refusing to identify the facility involved, the country where it was based or even when it happened.

In a telephone interview, FireEye's Dan Scali would only say the hack happened "recently" and that no one was hurt and that no equipment was damaged. He said who was behind the hack is unknown.

Cyberattacks which sabotage industrial equipment are counted among the most serious threats in digital security because of their capacity to wreak physical havoc.

Scali said Thursday that such attacks were still rare but "they're occurring more frequently."

___

Online:

FireEye's report: https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2017/12/attackers-deploy-new-ics-attack-framework-triton.html