ransomware in ENERGY
Ransomware Attacks Zap the Energy Sector
In the spring of 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company announced that it had fallen victim to an extremely disruptive ransomware attack that shuttered operations and prevented the distribution of nearly half of the fuel needed for the entire eastern seaboard of the U.S. spanning from Texas to New York.
The attack was so serious that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an emergency declaration that exempted 17 states and the District of Columbia from restrictions related to the transportation of refined petroleum products by mean other than the pipeline.
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The threat to the energy sector from disruptive ransomware attacks is escalating at an alarming pace:
Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA), a Colorado-based energy company, was forced to shut down 90% of its internal controls after being infected with data-wiping ransomware that destroyed 25 years of company data.
Brazilian-utility companies COPEL and Electrobras saw the exfiltration of more than 1k gigabyte of data in a ransomware attack that forced the companies to disconnect from the National Interconnected System.
Volue ASA, a Norwegian energy company, was the target of a ransomware attack where the threat actors were focused on the encryption of files and systems, but applications as well.
Legacy security tools were simply not designed to address the unique threat that ransomware presents, and this is why we keep seeing destructive ransomware attacks circumvent these traditional security solutions and impact the energy sector.
Calculate your risk exposure to ransomware
Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most important metrics in your business. Cybersecurity is no exception. Modern solutions, like Halcyon's multi-layered protection with endpoint resilience, saves you from new ransomware threats, while saving your bottom line too.
Footnotes
Ransomware attacks are one of the biggest threats facing any organization today, and the education sector has been hit particularly hard:
Attacks targeting education institutions spiked to record levels in August of 2023 just as schools were getting ready for the fall term.
Minneapolis Public Schools were extorted for $1 million after attackers threatened to expose sensitive student data including info on sexual assaults, psychiatric diagnosis, abuse, truancy, suicide attempts, and more-
The nonprofit National Student Clearinghouse, which provides data services to roughly 22,000 high schools and 3,600 universities, was the victim of data exfiltration at the hands of ransomware attackers.
Legacy security tools (EPP/EDR/XDR) were simply not designed to address the unique threat that ransomware presents, and this is why we keep seeing destructive ransomware attacks circumvent these traditional security solutions and impact education organizations.
Calculate your risk exposure to ransomware
Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most important metrics in your business. Cybersecurity is no exception. Modern solutions, like Halcyon's multi-layered protection with endpoint resilience, saves you from new ransomware threats, while saving your bottom line too.
Surge in Ransomware Challenges Energy Production
Ransomware poses several challenges to state and local governments:
People and Processes
Energy production and distribution is a complicated system with multiple choke points that can cause widespread disruptions that make energy producers a primary target for ransomware operators.
Downtime and Recovery
From initial detection to full recovery, it takes on average 22 days (about 3 weeks) to restore operations following a successful ransomware attack. Energy providers cannot afford weeks of downtime and closures.
This is why Halcyon enlisted some of the top engineers, data scientists, and threat researchers in cyber security to develop the Halcyon Anti-Ransomware Platform.
Halcyon delivers a purpose-built ransomware prevention solution that provides multiple layers of prevention, detection and recovery through proprietary encryption key material capture that autonomously restores systems to operation in a matter of minutes versus weeks.
Motivations
Ransomware operators understand that disruption to the energy sector impact multiple sectors and the wider economy, and they leverage this to put tremendous pressure on targets to pay huge ransom demands
Empowering Energy with Resilience
Defense Resilience
Existing EPP/EDR/XDR were not designed to stop ransomware attacks in progress. Halcyon AI/ML models are trained on millions of real-world ransomware attacks to fill the detection and prevention gap left by traditional security tools.
Stop Bypass & Evasion
Ransomware operators disable endpoint security tools with relative ease. Halcyon protects other security tools from being bypassed, unhooked, or blinded during a ransomware attack to increase ROI on all security investments.
Operational Resilience
Ransomware attacks are designed to be disruptive. The unique Halcyon encryption key material capture and anti-data exfiltration features prevent exposure of sensitive data and assure operational resilience against successful attacks.
Halcyon Offers the Most Powerful Ransomware Protection
Legacy security tools are failing to catch the telltale signs of ransomware attacks until it is too late, so we keep seeing destructive attacks circumvent these solutions.
Halcyon Anti-Ransomware Platform
Halcyon is the only platform to leverage advanced AI/ML detection models specifically trained to defeat ransomware. The unique Halcyon Anti-Ransomware Platform is easy to deploy, does not conflict with existing endpoint security solutions, and provides multiple levels of detection, prevention and recovery against ransomware attacks.
Talk to a Halcyon expert today to find out more and check out our Recent Ransomware Attacks resource site to get near real-time tracking of ransomware attacks, threat actor groups and their victims.
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