According to a Canadian security expert, the ransomware attack on a major U.S. gasoline pipeline should put complacent Canadian citizens and political leaders on high alert to the threat of online attacks against critical infrastructure.
“My sense is we are seriously vulnerable, and this [attack] is a major canary in the coal mine,” Christian Leuprecht, a Queen’s University professor and senior fellow in security and defence at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, said in an interview days after the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Co.
When the company learned of the attack on May 7, it shut down all pipeline operations and some IT systems to contain the threat. Reporting suggests it’s slowly opening the lines and hopes to be fully operational by the end of this week. However, the website hosting Colonial’s media statements was offline Tuesday morning after being available late Monday.
Additionally, the unclassified, 14-page advisory said the hackers were recently spotted using an open-source, command-and-control framework called Silver after gaining initial access to victim network.
The advisory was issued jointly by the FBI, U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Previously, the NSCS and Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) issued a joint report in July 2020 outlining specific tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) used by the hacking group.
“SVR cyber operators appear to have reacted to this report by changing their TTPs in an attempt to avoid further detection and remediation efforts by network defenders,” the new advisory says in part.
National security threats are changing, but Canada is mired in conventional thinking
We have entered an era in which national security is not just about protecting the state against adversaries, but also against dangers that have a direct impact on the daily lives of people, write Aaron Shull and Wesley Wark.
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We ve entered an era in which national security is not just about protecting the state against adversaries
Posted: Apr 30, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 30
David McGuinty, chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, submitted NSICOP s annual report to Parliament on April 12.(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)