Security News > 2020 > February > When the air gap is the space between the ears: A natural gas plant let ransomware spread from office IT to ops

America's Homeland Security this week disclosed it recently responded to a ransomware infection at an unnamed natural gas plant.

It did spread from an office computer through the plant's IT network to the operational network of PCs that monitor the plant, overwriting documents and other data as it went.

In addition to failing to stop the spear-phishing that led to the infection, CISA says the plant's operator fell short on separating the IT network from the operational systems of the plant.

Because the attack involved a piece of Windows-only ransomware, the malicious code was unable to affect the gas plant control systems that directly controlled operations.

We asked Homeland Security where the gas plant was located; it declined to comment.

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/19/dhs_confirms_ransomware_attack/