In Wake of Siren Hack, Cybersecurity Expert Calls For Vigilance
After 156 emergency sirens were hacked late Friday night, sounding the alarms for several hours, the city would be best to do a “top-to-bottom” detailed review of all its emergency systems and infrastructure controls, says a Richardson cybersecurity expert.
“Threat actors are never happy with a single outcome,” said Jeff Schilling, the chief security officer for Armor, which is not tied to the investigation of the Dallas hack. “They want to move across systems.”
On Tuesday, Schilling wrote a blog post in which he states that the “concern is that this could lead to ‘ransomware’ scenarios where a city could be frozen out of its critical systems unless extortion is paid.” To be safe, Schilling said, it would be in the city’s best interest to check any system that is tied to a data center or has connected capabilities. This includes everything from the 911 calling system to police and fire communication management systems to water towers.
Schilling has spent seven years in cybersecurity, serving as the director of the U.S. Army’s Global Network Operations and Security Center under the Army’s Cyber Command. While in the military he was charged with cybersecurity operations for more than 1 million computer systems that supported military units in more than 2,500 locations around the world. So when he saw the city of Dallas get hacked last week, he had his own theories about how it all happened and what should be next.
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/business-economy/2017/04/armor-dallas-needs-top-to-bottom-systems-review-to-avoid-further-hacks/