“The Mandiant discovery of a new OT malware, COSMICENERGY, exemplifies the concerns of securing critical infrastructure. Based on the analysis, if this malware is attributed to a red team and not a nation state threat actor, offensive capabilities may be accelerating at a dangerous rate. OT devices are typically insecure by design and motivated attackers could wreak havoc and cause long lasting damage as techniques and attacks are distributed into widely shared and used toolkits.
“The announcement of this new malware variant is timely as on May 25, a joint cybersecurity advisory AA23-144a was released warning of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) threat actor attacking critical infrastructure in the U.S and Guam. As this new malware variant shows, the threat of nation state actors and non-affiliated hacking groups is a global concern. Securing critical infrastructure against cyber threats should be one of the top priorities for the individuals, contractors, and manufacturers alike as the consequences of an attack can be catastrophic.” — Scott Caveza, Staff Research Engineer, Tenable
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