All posts tagged: Critical infrastructure

Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier – POLITICO

Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

In a letter to the national parliament published on Tuesday, State Secretary for Digital Economy Willemijn Aerdts said the national authority charged with screening investments had advised the government to block the acquisition. The purchase was seen as posing “a possible risk to the public interest.” The government on Monday decided to adopt the advice and block the acquisition, Aerdts said. “The Netherlands attaches great value to the presence of foreign, especially U.S.-based tech companies, and their added value to the Dutch economy and digital infrastructure, but it maintains, at the same time, an independent investment screening framework aimed at protecting the public interest and which applies equally to all investors, independent of their country of origin,” the letter read. The decision comes a week before the European Commission is set to unveil its tech sovereignty package, a set of proposals to reduce Europe’s reliance on foreign technology in the areas of cloud, microchips and AI. Kyndryl said in a statement it was “extremely disappointed” about the decision. “The politicization of this process has overshadowed …

Inside the rise of digital embassies – POLITICO

Inside the rise of digital embassies – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Sharing the AI load As Europe wakes up to its dependence on private tech from the U.S. and China, some countries are weighing whether building a digital embassy is better than relying on a private cloud service. Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who says the principality has become a trusted digital partner, at a technolgoy summit in Lisbon in November 2024. | Horacio Villalobos/Corbis/Getty Images “When we speak about digital sovereignty, we don’t need to send them to the States or to Asia, we can do it in Europe,” said Bettel. “It’s not against someone, it’s just in favor of sovereign Europe.” The idea is also sparking the curiosity of countries that want to supercharge artificial intelligence development and data processing but don’t have the resources to do it in their own country. Earlier this month, the World Economic Forum launched a global framework for bilateral agreements to establish such digital embassies. The framework touches on things like access rights, data disclosures, jurisdiction, privacy laws, dispute resolution and the interoperability of infrastructure. As AI …

Making them miss – POLITICO

Making them miss – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Lima, developed by Cascade Systems, a Ukrainian defense startup registered in the U.S., generates powerful jamming fields that disrupt satellite navigation. If satellite signals are blocked, Russian long-range weapons can continue flying using inertial navigation systems, but their accuracy can deviate by about 2 kilometers for every 100 kilometers traveled — meaning they are less likely to hit their targets. “When Lima is on, it makes missile deviation even greater. In addition to simply suppressing navigation, we use spoofing and the substitution of coordinates by several kilometers. We can make their missiles fall in fields instead of hitting their targets,” said Alchemist, a Lima developer and commander of the Night Watch, an electronic warfare unit of the territorial defense forces of Ukraine. He asked to be identified only by his call sign for security reasons. Lima’s appeal lies partly in its scale and cost. Unlike many other tactical jammers, Lima can cover large swaths of territory, protecting critical infrastructure. Each unit costs up to 3 million hryvnia (€58,000) to produce, depending on the iteration, according …

Europe must make big changes to compete with US, space chief warns – POLITICO

Europe must make big changes to compete with US, space chief warns – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The war between Russia and Ukraine has illustrated the dependencies. SpaceX — whose dominance in low-Earth orbit through systems such as Starlink has raised concerns over wartime connectivity for countries relying on it like Ukraine — should be “a wake-up call to really think about what Europe needs for its own autonomy,” he said. Aschbacher referred to Europe as a “sleeping beauty” with “excellent capacities,” citing Galileo and Copernicus — the EU’s satellite navigation and Earth observation programs — as successes, but said Europe needs more funding, faster decision-making and “defragmentation.” He pointed to the U.S. accounting for 60 percent of global public space funding, with Europe trailing behind at just 10 percent. “I would ask the decision-makers to multiply our investment by a factor of two, at least, if not three,” he said. “There is no alternative. We have to do it. This is not, for me, a plan B,” Aschbacher said. Source link

Commission blocks EU funding for Huawei solar tech – POLITICO

Commission blocks EU funding for Huawei solar tech – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Inverters are a piece of technology that turns solar panels’ electricity into current that flows into the grid. Huawei is a market leader in the technology. The EU has long been concerned about the threat posed by Chinese tech giant Huawei and its smaller rival ZTE in 5G networks, and is seeking to push EU member countries to remove them from their telecom networks — a position it is now trying to make mandatory. Concerns over Huawei’s dominance in the solar technology market have flared more recently. Risks posed by foreign interference in clean energy networks include manipulation of “electricity production parameters,” disruption of electricity generation and unauthorized access to operational data, McGarry said Monday. This could mean a “remote shutdown … leading to countrywide blackouts,” she said.  Suppliers from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are affected by the ban, the unnamed EU official said, though they noted that Chinese suppliers hold 80 percent of the global market share of solar inverters.  The revised Cybersecurity Act also seeks to tackle these risks in the …

Critical infrastructure giant Itron says it was hacked

Critical infrastructure giant Itron says it was hacked

Published by skeptic

American energy technology company Itron has confirmed it was hit by a cyberattack in mid-April and that hackers had gained access to some of its systems. In a legally required filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late on Friday, Itron said it was “notified” that it had an intruder in its systems. The company did not say who notified it, but added that it subsequently expelled the hackers and has seen no signs of further intrusions to its internal systems. Itron did not specify the type of cyberattack it experienced, such as whether ransomware was deployed or if the company had been contacted by the hackers directly. It’s also not immediately clear what impact, if any, the cyberattack is having on the company’s systems. The company said it did not identify unauthorized activity in the “customer-hosted portion of its systems,” suggesting that the breach may be limited to its IT network. Itron said it has also notified law enforcement of the breach. The Liberty Lake, WA-based company provides technology for managing energy consumption …

Russian spooks hack Wi-Fi routers to spy on West – POLITICO

Russian spooks hack Wi-Fi routers to spy on West – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Officials believe the hacking group used the stolen data to conduct cyberattacks, information sabotage and intelligence gathering and focused on military, government and critical infrastructure targets. “The Russians tried their best to cover all vulnerable routers, while redirecting requests only to domains they were interested in. For example, *.gov.ua, or with names corresponding to Microsoft Outlook, military systems,” said a law enforcement official taking part in the joint operation, granted anonymity to disclose more details. Ukraine’s SBU said “the Russian special services paid special attention to information exchanged between employees and servicemen of state bodies, units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and enterprises of the defense-industrial complex.” Agencies tied the campaign to hacking group Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 and Forest Blizzard), which has previously been identified by Western officials as part of the Russian military intelligence service GRU. Hackers exploited weaknesses in routers since at least 2024, including in popular TP-Link routers. By hacking the routers, they were able to snoop on data exchanges from mobile devices and laptops and bypass encryption protocols, …

Iran-Linked Hackers Are Sabotaging US Energy and Water Infrastructure

Iran-Linked Hackers Are Sabotaging US Energy and Water Infrastructure

Published by skeptic

As US President Donald Trump threatens wholesale demolition of Iran’s infrastructure in the midst of an escalating war, Iran now appears to have already reciprocated with its own form of infrastructure sabotage: A hacking campaign hitting industrial control systems across the United States, including energy and water utilities, that US agencies say has had disruptive and costly effects. In a joint advisory published Tuesday, a group of US agencies including the FBI, the National Security Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that a group of hackers affiliated with the Iranian government has targeted industrial control devices used in a series of critical infrastructure targets including in the energy sector, water and wastewater utilities, and unspecified “government facilities.” According to the agencies, the hackers have targeted programmable logic controllers (PLCs)—a type of device designed to allow digital control of physical machinery—in those facilities, including those sold by industrial tech firm Rockwell Automation, with the apparent intention of sabotaging their systems. By compromising those PLCs, the advisory warns, the hackers …

Iranian hackers are targeting American critical infrastructure, US agencies warn

Iranian hackers are targeting American critical infrastructure, US agencies warn

Published by skeptic

The U.S. government is warning that Iran-backed hackers are escalating their tactics by targeting American critical infrastructure systems with the aim of causing disruption. In a joint advisory published Tuesday, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Department of Energy collectively warned that Iranian government hackers have been exploiting internet-facing systems used across a range of sectors. These include water and wastewater utilities, as well as energy and local government facilities. The agencies did not specifically name any of the targets but said that the hacks were aimed at causing “disruptive effects within the United States” and had already resulted in “operational disruption and financial loss.” The hackers targeted programmable logic controllers and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) products, which are used to control and manage industrial equipment and systems in critical infrastructure operations, the agencies said. The agencies said that the hackers were able to manipulate information displayed on these devices and maliciously interact with project files that store important device configurations. The …