Famous OT attacks

Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure can be very catastrophic and fatal too. Let us look at some attacks that have occurred in the recent past and how they have affected the industry and the people involved.

The Triton attack

When we recount critical infrastructure attacks in the recent past, we cannot miss the Triton attack, which happened in 2017. This nation-state attack on ICS happened in the Middle East on Schneider’s Triconex safety systems in a petrochemical plant. This attack on a safety instrument system with malicious code that could eventually lead to the release of toxic gas was one of a kind and could have been fatal to human life.

Now, how did the attacker gain access to the network in the first place to have executed this remote code? You will not be surprised to find out that the action started with a spear-phishing campaign.

Figure 3.2 illustrates this attack in a diagram for a better understanding of the steps that could have...