Here’s a firm you might never heard mentioned- but you should add it to your watch list. Especially their resources page.

FireEye is a cybersecurity firm that helps us learn what is going on among the hackers and ne’erdowells of the world. This outfit was the one let us know that it was Russia  that shut down the Saudi petrochemical complex last year.

The problem with seeking out cybersecurity warnings is that Homeland Security, the National Security Agency (NSA), the US Cyber Command don’t share information with us. We can understand that some of what they know (or suspect) may let our enemies know how well (or how poorly) we are securing our infrastructure from their peeping and meddling- but we do need to know when we must do some “armoring” ourselves.

The good news is someone has informed the New York Times (uh, oh- is TheDonald going to seek out a scapegoat?) that the US Cyber Command is finally intervening to stop those foreign intrusions into our election systems.  That’s a good thing, given that elections are being held tomorrow!

The Cyber Command is warning Russian operatives that we’re on to them- and if they continue with their action, they will be indicted and sanctioned. But, the Command is also worried that Russia could  respond by attacking our electric grid.

Along those lines, the Department of Homeland Security has created the National Risk Management Center- a fancy title that describes their efforts to protect our critical infrastructure (like the electric grid) from physical AND cyber attacks. Of course, as I have reported years ago – to which the DHS has finally admitted the facts just 3 months ago- that Russian hackers easily venture into the control centers of many of  American utility companies.

Back to FireEye. They just reported that (you gotta love this moniker!) the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics was the malware producer that wiped out the Saudi plant. (This is very similar to the names of agencies for which I translated and edited Russian (and Iron Curtain countries’) technical articles 45 years ago for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base. [That work was as an employee of  Linguistic Systems of Cambridge, MA.])

Which may explain why the DOE (Department of Energy) has also created a new program- Neighborhood Keeper- and funded the entity Dragos to identify threats to smaller electric firms.

Let’s hope these programs actually provide us some security.

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