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87-577: The virus was used for cyberwarfare against national oil companies including Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco and Qatar's RasGas . A group named "Cutting Sword of Justice" claimed responsibility for an attack on 30,000 Saudi Aramco workstations, causing the company to spend more than a week restoring their services. The group later indicated that the Shamoon virus had been used in the attack. Computer systems at RasGas were also knocked offline by an unidentified computer virus, with some security experts attributing

174-697: A strategic level . Potential targets in internet sabotage include all aspects of the Internet from the backbones of the web, to the internet service providers , to the varying types of data communication mediums and network equipment. This would include: web servers, enterprise information systems, client server systems, communication links, network equipment, and the desktops and laptops in businesses and homes. Electrical grids , financial networks, and telecommunications systems are also deemed vulnerable, especially due to current trends in computerization and automation. Politically motivated hacktivism involves

261-621: A US drone in the Strait of Hormuz . In addition to retaliatory digital attacks, countries can respond to cyber attacks with cyber sanctions . Sometimes, it is not easy to detect the attacker, but suspicions may focus on a particular country or group of countries. In these cases, unilateral and multilateral economic sanctions can be used instead of cyberwarfare. For example, the United States has frequently imposed economic sanctions related to cyber attacks. Two Executive Orders issued during

348-618: A company or group. The idea of a "cyber Pearl Harbor " has been debated by scholars, drawing an analogy to the historical act of war. Others have used "cyber 9/11 " to draw attention to the nontraditional, asymmetric, or irregular aspect of cyber action against a state. There are a number of reasons nations undertake offensive cyber operations. Sandro Gaycken  [ de ] , a cyber security expert and adviser to NATO , advocates that states take cyber warfare seriously as they are viewed as an attractive activity by many nations, in times of war and peace. Offensive cyber operations offer

435-457: A control centre. Most RTU systems always had some capacity to handle local control while the master station is not available. However, over the years RTU systems have grown more and more capable of handling local control. The boundaries between DCS and SCADA/PLC systems are blurring as time goes on. The technical limits that drove the designs of these various systems are no longer as much of an issue. Many PLC platforms can now perform quite well as

522-420: A corrupted image and report the addresses of infected computers back to the computer inside the company's network. The malware had a logic bomb which triggered the master boot record and data wiping payload at 11:08   am local time on Wednesday, August 15. The attack occurred during the month of Ramadan in 2012. It would appear that the attack was timed to occur after most staff had gone on holiday reducing

609-703: A cyber attack on the Georgian government website, which was carried out along with Georgian military operations in South Ossetia. In 2008, Chinese "nationalist hackers " attacked CNN as it reported on Chinese repression on Tibet . Hackers from Armenia and Azerbaijan have actively participated in cyberwarfare as part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict , with Azerbaijani hackers targeting Armenian websites and posting Ilham Aliyev 's statements. Jobs in cyberwarfare have become increasingly popular in

696-450: A few hours. Kubecka described in a Black Hat USA talk that Saudi Aramco placed the majority of their security budget on the ICS control network, leaving the business network at risk for a major incident. On 15 August at 11:08 am local time, over 30,000 Windows based systems began to be overwritten. Symantec found some of the affected systems showed an image of an American flag while their data

783-568: A housing integral with the processor, to large rack-mounted modular devices with a count of thousands of I/O, and which are often networked to other PLC and SCADA systems. They can be designed for multiple arrangements of digital and analog inputs and outputs, extended temperature ranges, immunity to electrical noise , and resistance to vibration and impact. Programs to control machine operation are typically stored in battery-backed-up or non-volatile memory . Process control of large industrial plants has evolved through many stages. Initially, control

870-412: A large control room in order to monitor the whole process. With the coming of electronic processors, high-speed electronic signalling networks and electronic graphic displays it became possible to replace these discrete controllers with computer-based algorithms, hosted on a network of input/output racks with their own control processors. These could be distributed around the plant and would communicate with

957-472: A large variety of cheap and risk-free options to weaken other countries and strengthen their own positions. Considered from a long-term, geostrategic perspective, cyber offensive operations can cripple whole economies, change political views, agitate conflicts within or among states, reduce their military efficiency and equalize the capacities of high-tech nations to that of low-tech nations, and use access to their critical infrastructures to blackmail them. With

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1044-672: A malicious virus that originated from external sources and affected about 30,000 workstations. The workstations have since been cleaned and restored to service. As a precaution, remote Internet access to online resources was restricted. Saudi Aramco employees returned to work August 25, 2012, following the Eid holidays, resuming normal business. The company confirmed that its primary enterprise systems of hydrocarbon exploration and production were unaffected as they operate on isolated network systems. Production plants were also fully operational as these control systems are also isolated." On August 29, 2012

1131-586: A multitude of threats towards a nation. At the most basic level, cyber attacks can be used to support traditional warfare. For example, tampering with the operation of air defenses via cyber means in order to facilitate an air attack. Aside from these "hard" threats, cyber warfare can also contribute towards "soft" threats such as espionage and propaganda. Eugene Kaspersky , founder of Kaspersky Lab , equates large-scale cyber weapons , such as Flame and NetTraveler which his company discovered, to biological weapons , claiming that in an interconnected world, they have

1218-518: A nation's electrical grid (230,000 customers, Ukraine, 2015 ) or affected access to medical care, thus endangering life (UK National Health Service , WannaCry, 2017 ) have not led to military action. In 2017, Oxford academic Lucas Kello proposed a new term, "Unpeace", to denote highly damaging cyber actions whose non-violent effects do not rise to the level of traditional war. Such actions are neither warlike nor peace-like. Although they are non-violent, and thus not acts of war, their damaging effects on

1305-430: A phishing email attack that an unnamed Saudi Aramco Information Technology employee opened, giving the group entry into the company's network around mid-2012. We, behalf of an anti-oppression hacker group that have been fed up of crimes and atrocities taking place in various countries around the world, especially in the neighboring countries such as Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt and ..., and also of dual approach of

1392-429: A policy perspective. Non-state actors can play as large a part in the cyberwar space as state actors, which leads to dangerous, sometimes disastrous, consequences. Small groups of highly skilled malware developers are able to as effectively impact global politics and cyber warfare as large governmental agencies. A major aspect of this ability lies in the willingness of these groups to share their exploits and developments on

1479-735: A process or plant, wherein controller functions and field connection modules are distributed throughout the system. As the number of control loops grows, DCS becomes more cost effective than discrete controllers. Additionally, a DCS provides supervisory viewing and management over large industrial processes. In a DCS, a hierarchy of controllers is connected by communication networks , allowing centralized control rooms and local on-plant monitoring and control. A DCS enables easy configuration of plant controls such as cascaded loops and interlocks, and easy interfacing with other computer systems such as production control . It also enables more sophisticated alarm handling, introduces automatic event logging, removes

1566-457: A protracted period of back-and-forth cyber attacks (including in combination with traditional military action) between warring states. To date, no such action is known to have occurred. Instead, armed forces have responded with tit-for-tat military cyber actions. For example, in June 2019, the United States launched a cyber attack against Iranian weapons systems in retaliation to the shooting down of

1653-555: A semiconductor switch. Distributed control systems can normally also support Foundation Fieldbus , PROFIBUS , HART , Modbus and other digital communication buses that carry not only input and output signals but also advanced messages such as error diagnostics and status signals. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is a control system architecture that uses computers, networked data communications and graphical user interfaces for high-level process supervisory management. The operator interfaces which enable monitoring and

1740-496: A single control loop each. These are usually panel mounted which allows direct viewing of the front panel and provides means of manual intervention by the operator, either to manually control the process or to change control setpoints. Originally these would be pneumatic controllers, a few of which are still in use, but nearly all are now electronic. Quite complex systems can be created with networks of these controllers communicating using industry-standard protocols. Networking allows

1827-492: A small DCS, using remote I/O and are sufficiently reliable that some SCADA systems actually manage closed-loop control over long distances. With the increasing speed of today's processors, many DCS products have a full line of PLC-like subsystems that weren't offered when they were initially developed. In 1993, with the release of IEC-1131, later to become IEC-61131-3 , the industry moved towards increased code standardization with reusable, hardware-independent control software. For

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1914-402: A system and could lead to the disruption of equipment. Compromise of military systems, such as C4ISTAR components that are responsible for orders and communications could lead to their interception or malicious replacement. Power, water, fuel, communications, and transportation infrastructure all may be vulnerable to disruption. According to Clarke, the civilian realm is also at risk, noting that

2001-444: A warfare-like intent." In 2010, the former US National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism, Richard A. Clarke , defined cyberwarfare as "actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption". The target's own cyber-physical infrastructure may be used by the adversary in case of a cyber conflict, thus weaponizing it. There

2088-404: Is a combination of computer network attack and defense and special technical operations." According to this perspective, the notion of cyber warfare brings a new paradigm into military doctrine. Paulo Shakarian and colleagues put forward the following definition of "cyber war" in 2013, drawing on Clausewitz 's definition of war: "War is the continuation of politics by other means": Cyber war

2175-416: Is a commonly-used architecture industrial control systems, however there are concerns about SCADA systems being vulnerable to cyberwarfare or cyberterrorism attacks. The SCADA software operates on a supervisory level as control actions are performed automatically by RTUs or PLCs. SCADA control functions are usually restricted to basic overriding or supervisory level intervention. A feedback control loop

2262-491: Is a misnomer since no cyber attacks to date could be described as a war. An alternative view is that it is a suitable label for cyber attacks which cause physical damage to people and objects in the real world. Many countries, including the United States , United Kingdom , Russia , China , Israel , Iran , and North Korea , have active cyber capabilities for offensive and defensive operations. As states explore

2349-704: Is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers. DoS attacks often leverage internet-connected devices with vulnerable security measures to carry out these large-scale attacks. DoS attacks may not be limited to computer-based methods, as strategic physical attacks against infrastructure can be just as devastating. For example, cutting undersea communication cables may severely cripple some regions and countries with regards to their information warfare ability. The federal government of

2436-403: Is an extension of policy by actions taken in cyber space by state or nonstate actors that constitute a serious threat to a nation's security or are conducted in response to a perceived threat against a nation's security. Taddeo offered the following definition in 2012: The warfare grounded on certain uses of ICTs within an offensive or defensive military strategy endorsed by a state and aiming at

2523-487: Is debate on whether the term "cyber warfare" is accurate. In 2012, Eugene Kaspersky , founder of Kaspersky Lab , concluded that " cyberterrorism " is a more accurate term than "cyberwar." He states that "with today's attacks, you are clueless about who did it or when they will strike again. It's not cyber-war, but cyberterrorism." Howard Schmidt , former Cyber Security Coordinator in the Obama administration , said that "there

2610-616: Is directly controlled by the RTU or PLC, but the SCADA software monitors the overall performance of the loop. For example, a PLC may control the flow of cooling water through part of an industrial process to a set point level, but the SCADA system software will allow operators to change the set points for the flow. The SCADA also enables alarm conditions, such as loss of flow or high temperature, to be displayed and recorded. PLCs can range from small modular devices with tens of inputs and outputs (I/O) in

2697-451: Is distinct from the term "cyber war". Cyberwarfare includes techniques, tactics and procedures that may be involved in a cyber war, but the term does not imply scale, protraction or violence, which are typically associated with the term "war", which inherently refers to a large-scale action, typically over a protracted period of time, and may include objectives seeking to utilize violence or the aim to kill. A cyber war could accurately describe

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2784-448: Is no cyberwar... I think that is a terrible metaphor and I think that is a terrible concept. There are no winners in that environment." Some experts take issue with the possible consequences linked to the warfare goal. In 2011, Ron Deibert, of Canada's Citizen Lab , warned of a " militarization of cyberspace ", as militaristic responses may not be appropriate. However, to date, even serious cyber-attacks that have disrupted large parts of

2871-399: Is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state , causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems . Some intended outcomes could be espionage , sabotage , propaganda , manipulation or economic warfare . There is significant debate among experts regarding the definition of cyberwarfare, and even if such a thing exists. One view is that the term

2958-523: Is typically done in the form of war games . Industrial control system An industrial control system ( ICS ) is an electronic control system and associated instrumentation used for industrial process control . Control systems can range in size from a few modular panel-mounted controllers to large interconnected and interactive distributed control systems (DCSs) with many thousands of field connections. Control systems receive data from remote sensors measuring process variables (PVs), compare

3045-443: Is underreported to the extent they are known. According to McAfee's George Kurtz, corporations around the world face millions of cyberattacks a day. "Most of these attacks don't gain any media attention or lead to strong political statements by victims." This type of crime is usually financially motivated. But not all those who engage in cyberwarfare do so for financial or ideological reasons. There are institutes and companies like

3132-618: The Israel Defense Forces targeted and destroyed a building associated with an ongoing cyber-attack. There is ongoing debate over how cyberwarfare should be defined and no absolute definition is widely agreed upon. While the majority of scholars, militaries, and governments use definitions that refer to state and state-sponsored actors, other definitions may include non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, companies, political or ideological extremist groups, hacktivists , and transnational criminal organizations depending on

3219-516: The Obama administration , EO 13694 of 2015 and EO 13757 of 2016, specifically focused on the implementation of the cyber sanctions. Subsequent US presidents have issued similar Executive Orders. The US Congress has also imposed cyber sanctions in response to cyberwarfare. For example, the Iran Cyber Sanctions Act of 2016 imposes sanctions on specific individuals responsible for cyber attacks. Cyber warfare can present

3306-542: The University of Cincinnati or the Kaspersky Security Lab which engage in cyberwarfare so as to better understand the field through actions like the researching and publishing of new security threats. A number of countries conduct exercise to increase preparedness and explore the strategy, tactics and operations involved in conducting and defending against cyber attacks against hostile states, this

3393-522: The 64-bit version. This component drops the Wiper and the Reporter onto the infected computer and executes itself. It spreads across a local network by copying itself to network shares and on to other computers. The Wiper component utilizes an Eldos-produced driver known as RawDisk to achieve direct user-mode access to a hard drive without using Windows APIs . It identifies the locations of all files on

3480-548: The DCS was tailored to meet the needs of large continuous industrial processes, in industries where combinatorial and sequential logic was the primary requirement, the PLC evolved out of a need to replace racks of relays and timers used for event-driven control. The old controls were difficult to re-configure and debug, and PLC control enabled networking of signals to a central control area with electronic displays. PLCs were first developed for

3567-545: The General Staff of the British Army stated that this kind of attack from actors such as Russia "is a form of system warfare that seeks to de-legitimize the political and social system on which our military strength is based". Jowell and O'Donnell (2006) state that "propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers

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3654-433: The U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national security officials. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a public notice that warns that the electrical grid is not adequately protected from cyber attack. China denies intruding into the U.S. electrical grid. One countermeasure would be to disconnect

3741-475: The United States admits that the electric power grid is susceptible to cyberwarfare. The United States Department of Homeland Security works with industries to identify vulnerabilities and to help industries enhance the security of control system networks. The federal government is also working to ensure that security is built in as the next generation of "smart grid" networks are developed. In April 2009, reports surfaced that China and Russia had infiltrated

3828-595: The United States. The New York Times reported that American hackers from the United States Cyber Command planted malware potentially capable of disrupting the Russian electrical grid. Cyber propaganda is an effort to control information in whatever form it takes, and influence public opinion. It is a form of psychological warfare , except it uses social media , fake news websites and other digital means. In 2018, Sir Nicholas Carter, Chief of

3915-599: The advantage of powerful multi-core processors with much lower hardware costs than traditional PLCs and fit well into multiple form factors such as DIN rail mount, combined with a touch-screen as a panel PC , or as an embedded PC. New hardware platforms and technology have contributed significantly to the evolution of DCS and SCADA systems, further blurring the boundaries and changing definitions. SCADA and PLCs are vulnerable to cyber attack. The U.S. Government Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) known as MOSAICS (More Situational Awareness for Industrial Control Systems)

4002-647: The automotive industry on vehicle production lines, where sequential logic was becoming very complex. It was soon adopted in a large number of other event-driven applications as varied as printing presses and water treatment plants. SCADA's history is rooted in distribution applications, such as power, natural gas, and water pipelines, where there is a need to gather remote data through potentially unreliable or intermittent low-bandwidth and high-latency links. SCADA systems use open-loop control with sites that are widely separated geographically. A SCADA system uses remote terminal units (RTUs) to send supervisory data back to

4089-484: The chance of discovery before maximum damage could be caused, hampering recovery. The virus consisted of three components, the Dropper, the Wiper and the Reporter. The Dropper, the source of the infection, creates a service with the name 'NtsSrv' that enables it to remain persistent on the infected computer. The Dropper was built in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. If the 32-bit dropper detects a 64-bit architecture , it drops

4176-681: The collected data with desired setpoints (SPs), and derive command functions that are used to control a process through the final control elements (FCEs), such as control valves . Larger systems are usually implemented by supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, or DCSs, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), though SCADA and PLC systems are scalable down to small systems with few control loops. Such systems are extensively used in industries such as chemical processing, pulp and paper manufacture, power generation, oil and gas processing, and telecommunications. The simplest control systems are based around small discrete controllers with

4263-425: The context of the work. Examples of definitions proposed by experts in the field are as follows. 'Cyberwarfare' is used in a broad context to denote interstate use of technological force within computer networks in which information is stored, shared, or communicated online. Raymond Charles Parks and David P. Duggan focused on analyzing cyberwarfare in terms of computer networks and pointed out that "Cyberwarfare

4350-427: The control racks to be networked and thereby located locally to plant to reduce cabling runs, and provided high-level overviews of plant status and production levels. For large control systems, the general commercial name distributed control system (DCS) was coined to refer to proprietary modular systems from many manufacturers which integrated high-speed networking and a full suite of displays and control racks. While

4437-524: The damage to Shamoon. It was later described as the "biggest hack in history". Symantec , Kaspersky Lab , and Seculert announced discovery of the malware on 16 August 2012. Kaspersky Lab and Seculert found similarities between Shamoon and the Flame malware. Shamoon made a surprise comeback in November 2016, January 2017, and December 2018. Shamoon was designed to erase and overwrite hard drive data with

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4524-405: The desired intent of the propagandist" (p. 7). The internet is the most important means of communication today. People can convey their messages quickly across to a huge audience, and this can open a window for evil. Terrorist organizations can exploit this and may use this medium to brainwash people. It has been suggested that restricted media coverage of terrorist attacks would in turn decrease

4611-524: The economy and society may be greater than those of some armed attacks. This term is closely related to the concept of the " grey zone ", which came to prominence in 2017, describing hostile actions that fall below the traditional threshold of war. But as Kello explained, technological unpeace differs from the grey zone as the term is commonly used in that unpeace by definition is never overtly violent or fatal, whereas some grey-zone actions are violent, even if they are not acts of war. The term "cyberwarfare"

4698-519: The emergence of cyber as a substantial threat to national and global security, cyber war, warfare and/or attacks also became a domain of interest and purpose for the military. In the U.S., General Keith B. Alexander , first head of USCYBERCOM , told the Senate Armed Services Committee that computer network warfare is evolving so rapidly that there is a "mismatch between our technical capabilities to conduct operations and

4785-650: The first time, object-oriented programming (OOP) became possible within industrial control systems. This led to the development of both programmable automation controllers (PAC) and industrial PCs (IPC). These are platforms programmed in the five standardized IEC languages: ladder logic, structured text, function block, instruction list and sequential function chart. They can also be programmed in modern high-level languages such as C or C++. Additionally, they accept models developed in analytical tools such as MATLAB and Simulink . Unlike traditional PLCs, which use proprietary operating systems, IPCs utilize Windows IoT . IPC's have

4872-663: The following facts -valuable ones- about the company's systems: - internet service routers are three and their info as follows: - Khalid A. Al-Falih, CEO, email info as follows: - security appliances used: We think and truly believe that our mission is done and we need no more time to waste. I guess it's time for SA to yell and release something to the public. however, silence is no solution. I hope you enjoyed that. and wait our final paste regarding SHN/AMOO/lib/pr/~ angry internet lovers #SH" According to Kubecka, in order to restore operations, Saudi Aramco used its large private fleet of aircraft and available funds to purchase much of

4959-479: The form of pneumatic or electrical signals. Effectively this was the centralisation of all the localised panels, with the advantages of reduced manpower requirements and consolidated overview of the process. However, whilst providing a central control focus, this arrangement was inflexible as each control loop had its own controller hardware so system changes required reconfiguration of signals by re-piping or re-wiring. It also required continual operator movement within

5046-408: The foundation of modern economies," notes The New York Times . Stuxnet , while extremely effective in delaying Iran's nuclear program for the development of nuclear weaponry, came at a high cost. For the first time, it became clear that not only could cyber weapons be defensive but they could be offensive. The large decentralization and scale of cyberspace makes it extremely difficult to direct from

5133-699: The governing laws and policies. Cyber Command is the newest global combatant and its sole mission is cyberspace, outside the traditional battlefields of land, sea, air and space." It will attempt to find and, when necessary, neutralize cyberattacks and to defend military computer networks. Alexander sketched out the broad battlefield envisioned for the computer warfare command, listing the kind of targets that his new headquarters could be ordered to attack, including "traditional battlefield prizes – command-and-control systems at military headquarters, air defense networks and weapons systems that require computers to operate." One cyber warfare scenario, Cyber-ShockWave , which

5220-449: The graphic displays in the control room. The concept of distributed control was realised. The introduction of distributed control allowed flexible interconnection and re-configuration of plant controls such as cascaded loops and interlocks, and interfacing with other production computer systems. It enabled sophisticated alarm handling, introduced automatic event logging, removed the need for physical records such as chart recorders, allowed

5307-423: The immediate disruption or control of the enemy's resources, and which is waged within the informational environment, with agents and targets ranging both on the physical and non-physical domains and whose level of violence may vary upon circumstances. Robinson et al. proposed in 2015 that the intent of the attacker dictates whether an attack is warfare or not, defining cyber warfare as "the use of cyber attacks with

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5394-489: The infected PC. Kaspersky Labs hinted that the 900 KB malware could be related to Wiper , that was used in a cyber attack on Iran in April. After a 2-day analysis, the company erroneously concluded that the malware is more likely to come from " scriptkiddies " who were inspired by Wiper. Later, in a blog post, Eugene Kaspersky clarified the use of Shamoon categorizing as cyberwarfare. Cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare

5481-493: The infected computers and erases them. It sends information about the files destroyed to the attacker and then overwrites the erased files with corrupted data so they cannot be recovered. The component used portions of an image. In the 2012 attack it used an image of a burning U.S. flag; in the 2016 attack it used a photo of the body of Alan Kurdi . The malware was unique, used to target the Saudi government by causing destruction to

5568-455: The information and decide control actions to be performed by the output modules. The input modules receive information from sensing instruments in the process (or field) and the output modules transmit instructions to the final control elements, such as control valves . The field inputs and outputs can either be continuously changing analog signals e.g. current loop or 2 state signals that switch either on or off , such as relay contacts or

5655-413: The issuing of process commands, such as controller setpoint changes, are handled through the SCADA supervisory computer system. However, the real-time control logic or controller calculations are performed by networked modules which connect to other peripheral devices such as programmable logic controllers and discrete PID controllers which interface to the process plant or machinery. The SCADA concept

5742-642: The media as cyber-terrorists, wreaking havoc by hacking websites, posting sensitive information about their victims, and threatening further attacks if their demands are not met. However, hacktivism is more than that. Actors are politically motivated to change the world, through the use of fundamentalism. Groups like Anonymous, however, have divided opinion with their methods. Cyber attacks, including ransomware, can be used to generate income. States can use these techniques to generate significant sources of income, which can evade sanctions and perhaps while simultaneously harming adversaries (depending on targets). This tactic

5829-589: The military. All four branches of the United States military actively recruit for cyber warfare positions. In a 2024 study on the use of military cyber operations during the Russo-Ukrainian War , Frederik A. H. Pedersen and Jeppe T. Jacobsen concluded that cyber operations in warfare may only be impactful on the tactical and operational levels in a war's beginning, when cyber and non-cyber operations can be aligned and complex cyber weapons can be prepared before war breaks out, as well as cumulatively on

5916-470: The need for physical records such as chart recorders and allows the control equipment to be networked and thereby located locally to the equipment being controlled to reduce cabling. A DCS typically uses custom-designed processors as controllers and uses either proprietary interconnections or standard protocols for communication. Input and output modules form the peripheral components of the system. The processors receive information from input modules, process

6003-563: The number of terrorist attacks that occur afterwards. In 2017, the WannaCry and Petya (NotPetya) cyber attacks, masquerading as ransomware, caused large-scale disruptions in Ukraine as well as to the U.K.'s National Health Service, pharmaceutical giant Merck , Maersk shipping company and other organizations around the world. These attacks are also categorized as cybercrimes , specifically financial crime because they negatively affect

6090-537: The places suffering blackout. Howard Schmidt , former Cyber-Security Coordinator of the US, commented on those possibilities: It's possible that hackers have gotten into administrative computer systems of utility companies, but says those aren't linked to the equipment controlling the grid, at least not in developed countries. [Schmidt] has never heard that the grid itself has been hacked. In June 2019, Russia said that its electrical grid has been under cyber-attack by

6177-469: The potential to be equally destructive. Traditional espionage is not an act of war, nor is cyber-espionage, and both are generally assumed to be ongoing between major powers. Despite this assumption, some incidents can cause serious tensions between nations, and are often described as "attacks". For example: Out of all cyber attacks, 25% of them are espionage based. Computers and satellites that coordinate other activities are vulnerable components of

6264-427: The power grid from the Internet and run the net with droop speed control only. Massive power outages caused by a cyber attack could disrupt the economy, distract from a simultaneous military attack, or create a national trauma . Iranian hackers, possibly Iranian Cyber Army pushed a massive power outage for 12 hours in 44 of 81 provinces of Turkey , impacting 40 million people. Istanbul and Ankara were among

6351-655: The same attackers behind Shamoon posted another pastie on PasteBin.com, taunting Saudi Aramco with proof they still retained access to the company network. The post contained the username and password on security and network equipment and the new password for Aramco CEO Khalid Al-Falih. The attackers also referenced a portion of the Shamoon malware as further proof in the pastie: "mon 29th aug, good day, SHN/AMOO/lib/pr/~/reversed We think it's funny and weird that there are no news coming out from Saudi Aramco regarding Saturday's night. well, we expect that but just to make it more clear and prove that we're done with we promised, just read

6438-435: The security breaches have already gone beyond stolen credit card numbers, and that potential targets can also include the electric power grid, trains, or the stock market. In mid-July 2010, security experts discovered a malicious software program called Stuxnet that had infiltrated factory computers and had spread to plants around the world. It is considered "the first attack on critical industrial infrastructure that sits at

6525-399: The state-owned national oil company Saudi Aramco. The attackers posted a pastie on Pastebin hours prior to the wiper logic bomb occurring, citing "oppression" and the Saudi government as a reason behind the attack. According to Chris Kubecka , a security advisor to Saudi Aramco after the attack and group leader of security for Aramco Overseas, the attack was well-staged. It was initiated by

6612-545: The subversive use of computers and computer networks to promote an agenda, and can potentially extend to attacks, theft and virtual sabotage that could be seen as cyberwarfare – or mistaken for it. Hacktivists use their knowledge and software tools to gain unauthorized access to computer systems they seek to manipulate or damage not for material gain or to cause widespread destruction, but to draw attention to their cause through well-publicized disruptions of select targets. Anonymous and other hacktivist groups are often portrayed in

6699-427: The use of cyber operations and combine capabilities, the likelihood of physical confrontation and violence playing out as a result of, or part of, a cyber operation is increased. However, meeting the scale and protracted nature of war is unlikely, thus ambiguity remains. The first instance of kinetic military action used in response to a cyber-attack resulting in the loss of human life was observed on 5 May 2019, when

6786-414: The use of local or remote SCADA operator interfaces, and enables the cascading and interlocking of controllers. However, as the number of control loops increase for a system design there is a point where the use of a programmable logic controller (PLC) or distributed control system (DCS) is more manageable or cost-effective. A distributed control system (DCS) is a digital process control system (PCS) for

6873-478: The web as a form of arms proliferation. This allows lesser hackers to become more proficient in creating the large scale attacks that once only a small handful were skillful enough to manage. In addition, thriving black markets for these kinds of cyber weapons are buying and selling these cyber capabilities to the highest bidder without regard for consequences. In computing, a denial-of-service attack ( DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack)

6960-412: The world community to these nations, want to hit the main supporters of these disasters by this action. One of the main supporters of this disasters [ sic ] is Al-Saud corrupt regime that sponsors such oppressive measures by using Muslims oil resources. Al-Saud is a partner in committing these crimes. It's [ sic ] hands are infected with the blood of innocent children and people. In the first step, an action

7047-488: The world's hard drives, driving the price up. New hard drives were required as quickly as possible so oil prices were not affected by speculation. By September 1, 2012 gasoline resources were dwindling for the public of Saudi Arabia 17 days after the August 15th attack. RasGas was also affected by a different variant, crippling them in a similar manner. It is unclear why the attacker may have an interest in actually destroying

7134-556: Was wargamed on the cabinet level by former administration officials, raised issues ranging from the National Guard to the power grid to the limits of statutory authority. The distributed nature of internet based attacks means that it is difficult to determine motivation and attacking party, meaning that it is unclear when a specific act should be considered an act of war. Examples of cyberwarfare driven by political motivations can be found worldwide. In 2008, Russia began

7221-544: Was being deleted and overwritten. Saudi Aramco announced the attack on their Facebook page and went offline again until a company statement was issued on 25 August 2012. The statement falsely reported normal business was resumed on 25 August 2012. However a Middle Eastern journalist leaked photographs taken on 1 September 2012 showing kilometers of petrol trucks unable to be loaded due to hacked business systems still inoperable. "Saudi Aramco has restored all its main internal network services that were impacted on August 15, 2012, by

7308-469: Was developed as a universal means of remote access to a variety of local control modules, which could be from different manufacturers allowing access through standard automation protocols . In practice, large SCADA systems have grown to become very similar to distributed control systems in function, but using multiple means of interfacing with the plant. They can control large-scale processes that can include multiple sites, and work over large distances. This

7395-432: Was from panels local to the process plant. However this required personnel to attend to these dispersed panels, and there was no overall view of the process. The next logical development was the transmission of all plant measurements to a permanently-staffed central control room. Often the controllers were behind the control room panels, and all automatic and manual control outputs were individually transmitted back to plant in

7482-468: Was observed in August 2019 when it was revealed North Korea had generated $ 2 billion to fund its weapons program, avoiding the blanket of sanctions levied by the United States , United Nations and the European Union . Computer hacking represents a modern threat in ongoing global conflicts and industrial espionage and as such is presumed to widely occur. It is typical that this type of crime

7569-480: Was performed against Aramco company, as the largest financial source for Al-Saud regime. In this step, we penetrated a system of Aramco company by using the hacked systems in several countries and then sent a malicious virus to destroy thirty thousand computers networked in this company. The destruction operations began on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2012 at 11:08 AM (Local time in Saudi Arabia) and will be completed within

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