German blast furnace seriously damaged by cyber attack

The German Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik reports that attackers have managed to gain access to the control of production parts in a blast furnace in the past. Parts would have been badly damaged.

Heise reports that. A government agency report describes a hitherto unknown attack on an industrial facility in Germany. The attackers allegedly set their sights on an undisclosed steel mill. In doing so, they would have gained access to the company network via spear phishing. They then gained access to the control software for production in the steel plant.

The attackers allegedly manipulated the software. This would have disrupted production in the blast furnace, causing the factory to temporarily stop work. Factory parts were also heavily damaged. The BSI does not report the source of the attack. It is also unknown what the attackers’ aim was.

The attack described is reminiscent of Stuxnet, specialist malware believed to have been developed by the US and Israel. Stuxnet focused on the so-called scada systems from Siemens that were used in Iranian nuclear installations. The malware caused major damage to ultracentrifuges, delaying the enrichment of uranium by the Iranians.