President Trump on Friday issued an executive order declaring a national emergency over threats to the U.S. power system, taking steps to defend the grid against cyberattacks and foreign interference.
The executive order bans the use of equipment for the power grid that was manufactured by a company under the control of a foreign adversary, or the buying of any equipment that poses a national security threat.Related - Forbes - Trump Declares National Emergency As Foreign Hackers Threaten U.S. Power Grid -
then Director of National Intelligence, Daniel R. Coats, published a worldwide threat assessment in January 2019 that warned of the cyber-attack capabilities of both China and Russia when it came to the U.S. electricity grid. That report stated that "Russia has the ability to execute cyber-attacks in the United States that generate localized, temporary disruptive effects on critical infrastructure." The FBI and Department of Homeland Security released an alert in 2018 warning of "Russian government actions," targeting, among others, the energy infrastructure sector in the U.S.Related - Bloomberg - Trump Looks to Secure U.S. Power Grid From Foreign Attacks -
“This executive order is an important first step to address dangerous cyber-related vulnerabilities in the electric sector supply chain,” said Jim Cunningham, executive director of Protect Our Power, a nonprofit that works to strengthen the grid. The order highlights a looming threat that security experts have identified for some time now, he said.
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Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese producer of solar panels, energy-storage technology and telecommunications infrastructure, has been singled out as a particular threat to the American power grid.
A group of senators in December called on the administration to protect the power system, arguing that inverters produced by the company could put the grid at risk of foreign surveillance.Related - Reuters - Trump signs order to protect the U.S. electricity system: Energy Department -
A senior Energy Department official said that the order was not directed at any new threat, but the result of a process to bolster the power system.
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The order defines bulk power equipment as items used in substations, control rooms, or power plants, including nuclear reactors, capacitors, transformers, large generators and backup generators and other equipment.
The order does not mention countries, but the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment issued by then-U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said that China and Russia and other countries were using cyber techniques to spy on U.S. infrastructure.
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The Energy Department said that government rules about buying equipment for the power grid “often result in contracts being awarded to the lowest-cost bids, a vulnerability that can be exploited by those with malicious intent.”Related - ZDNet - Trump bans acquisition of foreign power grid equipment, citing hacking threats -
Despite President Trump citing hacking threats as a primary reason for signing the new order, the US has not seen any destructive attacks from foreign hackers until now.
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Instead, the US power grid ecosystem has been the target of constant reconnaissance operations from foreign hackers, with Russian threat actors being the most persistent.
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Earlier this year, in January, the Federal Bureau of Investigations sent private notifications to power grid operators about hackers targeting their software supply chain. The malware used in the attacks contained similarities to malware previously used by known Iranian state-sponsored hackers.Related - Cyberscoop - Citing hacking threats, Trump limits foreign-sourced equipment in U.S. electric sector -
The sweeping directive authorizes Trump’s energy secretary, Dan Brouillette, to work with U.S. national security agencies and the energy industry to vet equipment before it gets installed, and to identify vulnerable gear already in place. It is the latest move by the administration to clamp down on foreign-sourced software and hardware, following an order last year covering U.S. companies’ procurement of telecommunications gear.
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The directive allows Brouillette to develop a list of criteria that vendors would meet to demonstrate their products are “pre-qualified” for use in the U.S. bulk-power system. It also authorizes him to identify what vulnerable equipment is already in the field and figure out how to get it removed or otherwise remediated.
The executive order is here
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Twenty years on, the ILOVEYOU virus remains one of the farthest reaching ever. Tens of millions of computers around the world were affected. The fight to contain the malware and track down its author was front page news globally, waking up a largely complacent public to the dangers posed by malicious cyber actors. It also exposed vulnerabilities which we are still dealing with to this day, despite two decades of advances in computer security and technology.Associated Press - Solar, wind energy struggle as coronavirus takes toll -
“There are many smaller companies going out of business as we speak," said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “Up to half our jobs are at risk.”
Leaders are confident the future is bright. But the worldwide slowdown is delaying a transition to cleaner energy that scientists say is not happening quickly enough to curtail climate change.
Even as some states move toward reopening, executives fear diminished incomes and work disrupted by layoffs and social distancing will do lasting damage.
ZDNet - Outsourcing and everything as a service: Business tech priorities for 2020 -
As noted earlier, the availability of in-house IT support is likely to be an issue for SMBs -- especially given that the average salary for IT professionals is £44,135 in the UK and $85,019 in the US, according to Glassdoor. Increasing the IT headcount might prove too much for many small firms, but fortunately there are numerous opportunities to outsource tech support, either on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis.Reuters - U.S. House panel calls on Amazon's Bezos to testify on third-party sellers -
In a letter to Bezos signed by Democratic and Republican members of the panel, the lawmakers referred to an April 23 Wall Street Journal story about Amazon, saying, “If the reporting in the Wall Street Journal article is accurate, then statements Amazon made to the committee about the company’s business practices appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious.”Threatpost - -Upgraded Cerberus Spyware Spreads Rapidly via MDM -
No longer a simple Android banker, Cerberus is now a full-fledged RAT that can take complete control of devices and automatically spread via mobile device management servers.Related - SC Magazine - Banking trojan attack exposes dangers of not securing MDM solutions -
A global conglomerate had 75 percent of its mobile devices infected by a variant of the Cerberus Android banking trojan after an attack compromised the company’s mobile device management (MDM) server and used it to spread the malware.
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