Cyber Attackers Have Successfully Hit A Nuclear Power Plant And A Lab

Slashdot reader zootsewt1 quotes a rundown by Security Taco of two unrelated breaches at nuclear-related facilities that were recently disclosed -- one "disruptive" and the other involving the remote theft of documents: Director Yukiya Amano from the IAEA disclosed that a nuclear power generation facility came under cyber attack within the last few years. He declined to state which specific nuclear facility was involved. Mr. Amano advised that "This issue of cyber attacks on nuclear-related facilities or activities should be taken very seriously. We never know if we know everything or if it's the tip of the iceberg."

In a separate incident, a nuclear lab in the University of Toyama in Japan conducting research on tritium (used in nuclear power plants), also came under cyber attack earlier this year. The attacker appears to have been able to exfiltrate large large amounts of data, some of which was related to the Fukushima clean-up.
The Reuters article lists other data breaches and malware infections at nuclear sites over the years, and notes that the IAEA director "also cited a case in which an individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called 'dirty bomb'." At the isotope research center at the University of Toyama, the attacker reportedly compressed more than 1,000 files to make them easier to transmit.

But what part of the plant.

[Mr D from 63]

Of course, if we are just talking about an administrative network breach, and not the isolated control network, it sounds a lot worse than the risk it presents. There have been some cases of malware migrating to corporate network connected devices, but they've been isolated from anything that could affect operation of the facility.

Re:

[Mr D from 63]

BTW, "disruptive" means once it was discovered they went through some level of effort to analyze the extent of condition. They disrupted the normal work of the day, but not the operation of any safety controls of the plant.

Re:

[Joe_Dragon]

The t-437 safety command console.

Re:

[Lumpy]

Here is the scary part. MOST places dont have the control network isolated from the internet. Typically because of the drooling moron managers that want to log in and spy on the workers from home.

I know of at LEAST 4 water filtration plants that have the C&C network directly connected to the internet.

Honestly the managers that deem that security breach necessary need to be waterboarded while someone takes a cattle prod to their testicles.

Re:But what part of the plant.

[Waffle Iron]

It was the reactor core.

Some salesmen convinced management to install the new "AtomikRodz" smart controllers into the reactors. They monitor power demand levels, and over time they learn to automatically adjust power output in advance, cutting down on personnel costs. Even better, the associated app allows operators to manually adjust the control rods with their phones from anywhere in the world. No need to run down to the station just to fiddle with power output.

Unfortunately, as with most IoT gear, this product was riddled with security holes.

Re:

[Mr D from 63]

Whats really funny is that some folks here will take you seriously.

You have missed the critical point here

[thesupraman]

A clickbait headline!

I mean, after all a NUCEAR REACTOR has been HIT!!! by ATTACKERS!!!

Carefully ignore the fact that it probably means some script kiddie accidentally run a scan against
a poorly configured break room web terminal used to access ebay during lunchtimes..

a REACTION was HIT!

FLEE for your LIVES! and its CYBER, thats even worse! next YOUR reactor will be hit! there is no ESCAPE!

Sigh. Welcome to the death of actual journalism (or at least the rape of its long dead corpse)

Re:

[flyingfsck]

They exfiltrated radio active data from the AC plant. The data will make Wiki Leaks glow in the dark and halve Julian Assange's heating bill.

Re:

[AchilleTalon]

So, someone cracked the security gate guard's iPhone. Why such an uninfomative article makes its way to /.?

Re:

[Big Hairy Ian]

I did some work for the IAEA three or four years ago they were still using a 30 year old Mainframe that still hadn't been Y2K certified to do most of their work. Welcome to the UN

A tritiumn lab?

[Mr D from 63]

Why would we worry about a tritium lab?

Re:A tritiumn lab?

[mbkennel]

Because substantial amounts of tritium are essential for "boosted" fission nuclear weapons. Tritium (and deuterium, which is cheap and easy to procure) adds fusion to the core of a fission warhead. It's not significant in energy production directly (unlike a true H-bomb) but it substantially increases the efficiency and potency of the fission reaction by adding a boost of neutrons at the moment of maximum compression.

It is considered essential to producing warheads which are small enough for militarily capable missiles.

Hackers were hence probably DPRK.

Re:

[Mr D from 63]

Nice cut and paste from wiki. But a cyber attack on a tritium lab doesn't get materials into the hands of anyone.

Re:

[rholtzjr]

Because tritium [wikipedia.org] in particular is an integral part of certain thermonuclear devices (though in quantities several thousand times larger than that in a keychain), consumer and safety devices containing tritium for use in the United States are subject to certain possession, resale, disposal, and use restrictions.

Hmm, I wonder?

Re:

[AHuxley]

Its the gateway to better nuclear weapons. The easy guide to that is to study the UK's production sites like Chapelcross.

Confused report

[Mr D from 63]

The Reuters article lists other data breaches and malware infections at nuclear sites over the years, and notes that the IAEA director "also cited a case in which an individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called 'dirty bomb'." At the isotope research center at the University of Toyama, the attacker reportedly compressed more than 1,000 files to make them easier to transmit.

This paragraph conflates separate, unrelated incidences, one of which has nothing at all to do with cyber attack. Why?

Re: Confused report

[Nidi62]

Because nuclear and dirty bombs and terrorism.

Re:

[Princeofcups]

The Reuters article lists other data breaches and malware infections at nuclear sites over the years, and notes that the IAEA director "also cited a case in which an individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called 'dirty bomb'." At the isotope research center at the University of Toyama, the attacker reportedly compressed more than 1,000 files to make them easier to transmit.

This paragraph conflates separate, unrelated incidences, one of which has nothing at all to do with cyber attack. Why?

Viewer clicks.

Re:

[AHuxley]

Most nations who joined the nuclear club late kind of have to sign up to all kinds of international standards and protections to keep their university, power, medical and research tracked and watched.
Stuff missing is tracked as nations like to build projects on the side. To prevent that everything is registered.

Re:

[queazocotal]

Also, enriched uranium is a _TERRIBLE_ isotope for a dirty bomb.
Enriched uranium is more radioactive than natural uranium - but only in a ridiculously small amount, because instead of half decaying in 4 billion years, half decays in 700 million years.

Alexander_Litvinenko was poisoned by around 10 micrograms of Polonium-210.
In rough numbers, polonium-210 is two billion times more active than uranium-235.
To have the same dose equivalent of uranium, you'd need a 20 kilogram lump of uranium-235.
There is no real

Re:

[doom]

And the word "successfully" in this context suggests that a cracker has hijacked the control system of a nuclear power plant. Actually the news appears to be that someone got some data from a lab that works with tritium. So: EditorDavid is either a fear-mongering anti-nuclear fanatic, or a fear-mongering yellow journalist hustling for clicks-- why exactly am I reading this site?

Re:

[Mr D from 63]

Its hard sometimes to tell the fear mongers from those that are just ignorant. Mostly I just hear parrots repeating whatever fits their ill informed vision of all things nuclear.

I try to do my part to educate and point out the utter stupidity which is common to almost every anti-nuke submission, but sometimes I agree, why bother.

Compression

[Anonymous Coward]

"the attacker reportedly compressed more than 1,000 files to make them easier to transmit."
As long as the attacker didn't try the same trick with the uranium - that tends to not end so well...

Re:

[m.alessandrini]

But then, how can you make Homer Simpson work from home?

Give the atacker a metal..

[BlueCoder]

And whomever put the plant online and or designed the computer system needs to be shot for treason.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of metal? Polonium?

Reduced physical security

[mdsolar]

US nuclear plants are bucking for reduced physical security, disarming guards, leaving waste with little supervision. Cyber attacks may end up being more effective as the human security component is curtailed.

The Fukushima clean-up?

[drinkypoo]

Let's hope they release that stuff publicly ASAP. I want to know what Tepco has been lying about lately.

Re:

[MrKaos]

Let's hope they release that stuff publicly ASAP. I want to know what Tepco has been lying about lately.

That the ground around unit four spent fuel pool has subsided 30 inches since the accident with 400 or so spent fuel rods still in there.

Allegations are that unit 4 was being upgraded when the quake struck and that fuel was being stored illegally in the spent fuel pool at the time of the quake. Money that should have been spent on seawall and generator upgrades.

Japanese civil engineers have said they're at a loss to explain the damage to the concrete supports for the spent fuel pool in unit four as the

Hey mom, look what I can do...

[MTEK]

This whole internet thing has been fun and all, but can we please go back to pen and paper? Thx.

It is obvious we need to derez nuclear fission

[WillAffleckUW]

Besides, we already have military fusion reactors, so it's not like we need risky nasty fission any more.

Thanks to the UW and other teams that developed them!