CGI featured in New Power magazine cyber security feature

CGI’s Rich Hampshire and Andrew Rogoyski recently featured in the December issue of New Power magazine to discuss the scale of cyber-crime, the increase of cyber-attacks on the energy industry and UK / European attempts to tackle the problem.

The article focuses on the increase in global web-based attacks over recent years and that critical infrastructure, such as power networks, are considered main potential targets. Our experts discuss how, although the energy sector has not attracted targeted attacks by some of the cyber-criminal fraternity that other market sectors have, energy companies are becoming increasingly concerned about security breaches and their potential impact.

The vulnerability of the energy sector was illustrated last year when a group of attackers known as Dragonfly managed to compromise a number of oil, gas and electricity firms in the USA and Europe by infecting the software of a number of industrial control system (ICS) equipment providers. Energy companies inadvertently installed the malware when downloading software updates on computers running ICS equipment, giving Dragonfly a route into organ¬isations’ networks as well as the means to mount sabotage operations.

Cyber-attackers, such as Dragonfly, have therefore become a major concern in the energy sector as often they use relatively simple legacy systems that are therefore very vulnerable.

Read the full article: