U. S. Power Plant Infected With Malware

Event Year: 2012 Reliability: Confirmed
Country: United States
Industry Type: Power and Utilities
Description:

Malware was discovered at a U. S. powerplant when an employee was experiencing issues with his USB drive.  The USB drive was routinely used for backing up control systems configurations within the control system environment.  The employee asked an IT person to check the USB drive.  The IT staff inserted the drive into a computer with up-to-date antivirus software.  The software identified three malware hits.  Two were for common malware and one for a sophisticated malware.  The sophisticated malware was discovered on two engineering workstations.

This incident was reported in a newsletter from the U.S. industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team. (ICS-CERT).

Impact:

Malware was discovered at a U. S. powerplant when an employee was experiencing issues with his USB drive.  Upon examination of the drive,  three hits for malware were detected.  Two for a common malware and one for a sophisticated malware.  Two engineering workstations were infected with sophisticated malware.