Iran-Linked Hackers Disrupted US Oil, Gas, Water Sites (thehill.com)
- Reference: 0181424764
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/04/08/2139228/iran-linked-hackers-disrupted-us-oil-gas-water-sites
- Source link: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5821971-iran-hackers-target-us-infrastructure/
> The report warned that similar companies across the country should be aware of an increased push by hackers to take over programmable logic controller (PLC) systems, which can be used to digitally control physical machinery from remote locations. Secure internet access for PLCs from one company, Rockwell Automation, were removed by Iran-linked coders who then "maliciously interacted with project files and altered data," according to the report. Hackers first gained access to some of the platforms in January of last year. All access to compromised platforms ended in March, the report said. The FBI said the move resulted in "operational disruption" and "financial loss."
>
> [...] Rockwell Automation wasn't the only company to recently face cyberattacks from Iran-linked hackers. Stryker, a major U.S. medical device maker, was targeted by Iran-affiliated coders in mid-March. It was unclear if physical operations were affected by the security breach. FBI Director Kash Patel was [4]personally impacted by hackers who leaked his emails and records related to his personal travels and business from more than 10 years ago. [...]
>
> The FBI urged companies to adopt network defenders and multifactor authentication to prevent future attacks. Tuesday's report was published alongside the National Security Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "Government and experts have been warning about internet connected systems for years, and how vulnerable they are," one source familiar with the federal investigation into the hacks [5]told CNN . Many companies have "ealready removed those systems and followed the guidance," the person added.
[1] https://www.ic3.gov/CSA/2026/260407.pdf
[2] https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5821971-iran-hackers-target-us-infrastructure/
[3] https://apnews.com/article/iran-trump-cyber-israel-kash-patel-handala-5d844886ecd92f6a79ccda4d41f2b36a
[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/27/1813256/iran-linked-hackers-breach-fbi-directors-personal-email
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/07/politics/iran-linked-hackers-disrupt-us-industrial-sites
Re: (Score:2)
Those bastards, how dare they defend themselves...
Re: (Score:3)
The only thing I can figure is when trump was a child, daddy would pay people to let his son beat them up and not fight back against donnie so that donnie could be gloriously victorious. And now as an adult, he thinks that is the way it works. Sort of a variant of the whipping boy for the king's kid.
new import ban (Score:1)
Uh oh! This is worse than the routers problem. Time to ban PLCs! /s
Absolutely needless (Score:3, Interesting)
So now we have to deal with an energy crunch, big gas prices for a few months, a potential global recession and Iran still gets to control Hormuz with a fancy new tax (which Trump said today we might take part in collection fees? So the terrible regime now we're gonna jump into business with?) and for what?
To stop them from making a nuke? When we were told their nuclear capability was obliterated months ago (remember that?!?) and when we could have simply continued or renegotiated inspections from the JCPOA but instead Trump scuttled that his first term.
And before anyone starts no, I'm not going to shed any tears for dead ayatollahs but that doesn't make this whole thing an embarrassing boondoggle and it certainly doesn't help almost 6 years of Trump regime foreign policy being a fucking joke that has made us look like lunatics on the world stage while China gets to sit back and plug away at building more tech and infrastructure. (also notice that there's not even mention of an infrastructure bill this term after so much talk in the first? yeah because Biden actually got it done. Twice. That's a real deal-maker.)
There's something to be said that both parties are the same in that they will both go play world police sometimes but for Republicans that means being the piece of shit corrupt cop.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not difficult - Iran must be balkanized if Israel is going to conquer the Middle East and expand its proper borders to "those promised by God". They will demand a regional empire beyond their borders as a "buffer zone".
The Eschatological Christian Zionists want them tp destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple so Jesus can come back. Much of the Senior Brass at DoD (or Department of War Crimes) believes in this.
Is it all absurd and crazy? Doesn't matter, it's what motivates the people wi
Re: (Score:2)
We do live in a crazy world where trump's minions would prefer he commit genocide rather than be exposed as diddling underage girls. I don't even believe they were that young. His "type" is late teens/early twenties, not prepubescent. So almost legal/legal.
And I'll say one more thing about the genocide. Not since WWII has a leader of a nation that could pull off a genocide actually said he would. Think about that. We and many other countries fought a war with millions dying to stop a genocide. And now we wa
Stop connecting it to the internet (Score:2)
I'm not sure what idiots thought it was a good idea but it seems pretty damn irresponsible to connect vital resources to the internet. Frankly, it's past time we had a law where if the NSA can remotely knock your vital infrastructure (for civilization) offline that your company gets to pay a substantial penalty. If it happens a second time within a few years then the company executives get prosecuted for criminal negligence.
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm not sure what idiots thought it was a good idea but it seems pretty damn irresponsible to connect vital resources to the internet.
We were warned about not hooking up critical infrastructure to the internet [1]back in 1995. [imdb.com] And when AI takes over and destroys the world because everything is connected to the internet, [2]we were warned about that, too. [imdb.com]
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/
Re: (Score:2)
I wished I had mod points because you deserve a +5 Insightful for that. Really, why are we so lazy? I understand wanting all of that stuff on a network, but put it on a private network that you can only get to if you're at a company site. No bridges either, it's special terminals on the private network or you can't access it. Yeah, it makes things more inconvenient, but that the way it goes: it's always security versus convenience ... pick one.
Criminals don't need an excuse. (Score:2)
It's not a stretch to imagine Iran-based threats are motivated by profit more than nationalism. My bet is they are working just as hard now as they did before war and before the ceasefire. Many threat actors, be they nation-state based or just plain old criminals have sophisticated operations. Any company that doesn't have a firewall, monitored endpoint protection, cloud protection, anti-virus, employee education, 24/7 active monitoring, and more is a target that will be compromised sooner or later... if
The Fucking Big Idiots say (Score:2)
> The FBI says
...a lot of shit nobody takes seriously in general, even moreso since the Nazis took them over.
We cut back on cyber security (Score:2, Interesting)
So that Russia could have more access to our politicians and voters. It worked Trump's president again. But it does mean that we are substantially more vulnerable to other attacks. Especially when a senile old man can easily be tricked into starting a war that even Bush Jr wasn't dumb enough to start...
As for Iran yeah, we attacked them without any reason to do so. We already had a perfectly good deal to stop them from building nukes. But it came from a black man so it had to go.
And now it looks li
Re: (Score:3)
Ironically this war has worked out well for Russia—it draws media attention away from Ukraine while simultaneously expending supplies of Patriot missiles and other munitions, and the spike in oil prices has basically wiped out the benefits of crushing them with sanctions for the past four years.
These are just some of the 'miracles' you can accomplish when you [1]let [reuters.com] Bibi Netanyahu start another war so he can keep postponing the conclusion of his [2]corruption trial [wikipedia.org]...
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-says-netanyahus-trial-should-be-canceled-2025-06-25/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Benjamin_Netanyahu
Re: (Score:2)
There's nothing ironic about it they got what they paid for. People forget that Trump was a Russian stooge for ages. The reason he wasn't bankrupted during his most incompetent business deals is because he was laundering money for the Russian mafia.
Never mind the fact that Russia and the Israeli government both have massive amounts of dirt on Trump thanks to his long-term friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. You would have to be incredibly naive not to know that the Russian government has evidence of trump
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, lazy dumbasses connected critical infrastructure to the internet so they could control this stuff from home. The greedy were happy to go along because it meant they didn't have to pay a night crew.
Your fallacy is false dichotomy [Re:We cut bac...] (Score:2)
Your fallacy is FALSE DICHOTOMY.
You are saying that if somebody is critical of Trump therefore they must be "all for" the Iran regime.
Nope. You can oppose Trump for good reasons, and ALSO deplore the Iranian regime.