Hackers penetrate the corporate - side of a utility that supplies water to about 1.3 million multitude in the United Kingdom . However , the seeming data point breach may not have been the one the cyber - outlaw were aiming for .
Ransomware crew ClOP ( previously responsible for for one of2021 ’s biggest hack ) claimed to have infiltrated Thames Water , the United Kingdom ’s largest imbibition water utility , on Monday , according toa reportfrom Bleeping Computer . However , theutility deniedany breach of its system . Meanwhile , another UK public utility company , South Staffordshire Water , confirmed it was attack .
Thames Water services 15 million people , more than ten time the scale of South Staffordshire . So , although any attack on a public utility is clearly unsound , there ’s a big difference between the scale of what ClOP take and what utilities pick up to .
A UK water supplier has become one of the latest targets of a ransomware gang. Attackers accessed internal utility data and information, although do not seem to have impacted water service.Image:Rawpixel.com(Shutterstock)
Hackers’ Claims Against Utilities
South Staffordshire PLC ( the parent company of South Staffordshire Water ) admitted its corporate IT connection had been accessed by hackers , ina public statementpublished Monday . However , SSW did n’t indicate that they ’d been contacted for ransom money . “ We are experience disruption to our incarnate IT connection and our teams are working to resolve this as quickly as possible . It is important to accent that our client armed service teams are operate as usual , ” the ship’s company wrote . The water provider further claimed that “ this incident has not touch on our ability to append good water . ”
Aside from the company statement , grounds of the reported cyber - criminal confusion appeared in screenshots that Bleeping Computer published from ClOP ’s Tor site . The cyber crew reportedly wrote that they had breached and “ spend month in ” Thames Water ’s system . However , to back up their hack success , they posted electronic mail tilt clearly consort with South Staffordshire Water ( not Thames ) employees and put out leak out papers , one of which was explicitly addressed to SSW .
Yes , not note that you ’ve hacked the wrong public utility seems like a silly error to make , but anything is potential . Another thing that could be possible is that both utilities were actually point in cyber attacks , and Thames either did n’t observe or did n’t acknowledge its own security fail . Note : Thames Water did indicatesome service disruptionon their site on Monday , but that was later attributed to a burst organ pipe and could easily have been unrelated .
Screenshot:Gizmodo
Neither South Staffordshire Water , nor Thames Water immediately respond to Gizmodo ’s postulation for comment .
What Are The Implications?
Any security breach or assault on a decisive public service or service program isrightfully unsettling . Last year , a cyber - attackerattempted to poisona Florida Town ’s water supply , and revealedjust how weakutilities ’ surety protections can be . Though the hackers in this case may have fumbled , it ’s still reasonably scary that they were capable to cut off any function of a water supplier at all .
Security expert have long warned of the risk that the energy gridiron , body of water supply , and other canonical societal supportscould be vulnerableto literary hack . And unluckily , the job mightbe set out worse . “ Although this tone-beginning come out to have been comparatively benign , it does set a worrying precedent,”Jamie Akhtar , chief executive officer of security startup CyberSmart , toldthe BBC .
Computer securityCyberattackCybersecurityGizmodoSecurity
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