Industrial Control System Firms In Dragonfly Attack Identified

chicksdaddy (814965) writes Two of the three industrial control system (ICS) software companies that were victims of the so-called "Dragonfly" malware have been identified. ... Dale Peterson of the firm Digitalbond identified the vendors as MB Connect Line, a German maker of industrial routers and remote access appliances and eWon, a Belgian firm that makes virtual private network (VPN) software that is used to access industrial control devices like programmable logic controllers. Peterson has also identified the third vendor, identified by F-Secure as a Swiss company, but told The Security Ledger that he cannot share the name of that firm.

The three firms, which serve customers in industry, including owners of critical infrastructure, were the subject of a warning from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS's ICS CERT said it was alerted to compromises of the vendors' by researchers at the security firms Symantec and F-Secure. DHS said it is analyzing malware associated with the attacks. The malicious software, dubbed "Havex" was being spread by way of so-called "watering hole" attacks that involved compromises of vendors web sites. According to Symantec, the malware targeted energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and energy industry industrial equipment providers. Most of the victims were located in the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Poland.

Re:Why can't the Swiss company be named?

[Dale Peterson]

We found the Belgian and German companies independently. The name of the Swiss company was shared in confidence, primarily to confirm our contention it was another small company with actually less of an impact than eWON or MB Connect. We are in the process of getting the name from additional sources without restrictions and will publish it when we can. It should be out as should the ICS and energy sites that were redirecting. Of course, it still is a mystery why US-CERT/ICS-CERT and the European CERTs don't mention any of the company names. The names would certainly be helpful if they wanted to alert asset owners that they may be compromised. eWON, to their credit, posted an updated notice on their home page of the website breach. MB Connect and the Swiss vendor sites are still silent on the issue. Dale Peterson @digitalbond