OK, we’re not saying that all Russians are the cybersecurity equivalent of Ivan Drago (Rocky IV anyone?) but it does seem that the world’s largest country has their fair share of cyber thugs. Just last week, cybersecurity firm FireEye claims to have discovered proof that a Russian-owned research institute was at least partially responsible for the development of the dangerous TRITON malware. TRITON was the bug that caused some industrial systems, specifically in oil and gas facilities, to unexpectedly shut down last year, including a plant in Saudi Arabia.
Considering that the level of malware used in TRITON is so advanced, researchers suspect that it may have had some help from the Moscow-based Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics, aka the Russian Government. Though neither the Russian government nor the CNIIHM institute have responded to the FireEye report, this is definitely an issue we should pay attention to because of how control system technologies are integrated into almost everything society depends on for life in the 21stcentury.
