WEB: According to researchers, a Russian cyber attack is responsible for a blackout in Kiev in December 2016 …
On the night of December 17 to 18, 2016, in the heart of winter, a power plant in Kiev was affected by a power outage for a time that did not really make the headlines. But according to researchers, it was caused by a computer virus that is linked to Russia. And who would be able to take in many facilities worldwide, including gas and water.
One of the two companies have identified the virus, the Slovak company ESET, baptized it “Industroyer”. She says it was the most potent threat to industrial control systems from Stuxnet virus to nuclear facilities in Iran which was probably of American and Israeli origin.
Linked to Russian hackers
Dragos, a US cyber security company that worked on the same virus, has connected his side to a group of Russian hackers named Sandworm, deemed linked to the Russian government. It allows, for example hackers to take control of substations and closing parts of the power grid, to destabilize and cause giant failures.
According to ESET, the malware “can be adapted to pick on any system to the communications system.” The company does not rule out that Ukraine was only a test, and that attacks on a larger scale could occur in the future.
