Iranian hackers took a British energy facility offline for four days last month, the Telegraph reported. The attack coincided with suspected Iranian hacking of water systems in the United States.
British authorities have not confirmed which facility was hit. The plant was reportedly out of operation for four full days. A government spokesperson described it as a “small power generation plant” not classified as critical infrastructure. The outage had no impact on the UK’s overall power supply or energy output, the spokesperson added. Still, the government has briefed chief executives of major energy companies.
In March, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) had warned UK organizations to prepare for “the risk of collateral damage from Iran-linked hacktivists” after the US began its war against Iran. In June, NCSC chief Richard Horne said the agency had repelled more than 200 cyberattacks on critical national infrastructure in the period up to May.
This is not the first cyberattack on UK infrastructure, and Iran is not the only culprit. Past serious incidents have knocked out systems at the state health service NHS, schools, and industrial plants. In what is considered the most damaging cyberattack in British history, Russian hackers hit production lines at Jaguar Land Rover last year.
Source: www.spiegel.de
