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T0827 Loss of Control

Adversaries may seek to achieve a sustained loss of control or a runaway condition in which operators cannot issue any commands even if the malicious interference has subsided. 2 3 4

The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) reported a targeted attack on a steel mill in its 2014 IT Security Report.1 These targeted attacks affected industrial operations and resulted in breakdowns of control system components and even entire installations. As a result of these breakdowns, massive impact resulted in damage and unsafe conditions from the uncontrolled shutdown of a blast furnace.

Item Value
ID T0827
Sub-techniques
Tactics TA0105
Platforms None
Version 1.0
Created 21 May 2020
Last Modified 09 March 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0604 Industroyer Industroyer‘s data wiper component removes the registry image path throughout the system and overwrites all files, rendering the system unusable. 8
S0372 LockerGoga Some of Norsk Hydro’s production systems were impacted by a LockerGoga infection. This resulted in a loss of control which forced the company to switch to manual operations. 10 9

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M0953 Data Backup Take and store data backups from end user systems and critical servers. Ensure backup and storage systems are hardened and kept separate from the corporate network to prevent compromise. Maintain and exercise incident response plans 5, including the management of gold-copy back-up images and configurations for key systems to enable quick recovery and response from adversarial activities that impact control, view, or availability.
M0810 Out-of-Band Communications Channel Provide operators with redundant, out-of-band communication to support monitoring and control of the operational processes, especially when recovering from a network outage 7. Out-of-band communication should utilize diverse systems and technologies to minimize common failure modes and vulnerabilities within the communications infrastructure. For example, wireless networks (e.g., 3G, 4G) can be used to provide diverse and redundant delivery of data.
M0811 Redundancy of Service Hot-standbys in diverse locations can ensure continued operations if the primarily system are compromised or unavailable. At the network layer, protocols such as the Parallel Redundancy Protocol can be used to simultaneously use redundant and diverse communication over a local network. 6

References

  1. Bundesamt fr Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) (German Federal Office for Information Security) 2014 Die Lage der IT-Sicherheit in Deutschland 2014 (The State of IT Security in Germany) Retrieved. 2019/10/30  ↩

  2. Corero Industrial Control System (ICS) Security Retrieved. 2019/11/04  ↩

  3. Michael J. Assante and Robert M. Lee Corero Industrial Control System (ICS) Security Retrieved. 2019/11/04 The Industrial Control System Cyber Kill Chain Retrieved. 2019/11/04  ↩

  4. Tyson Macaulay Michael J. Assante and Robert M. Lee Corero Industrial Control System (ICS) Security Retrieved. 2019/11/04 The Industrial Control System Cyber Kill Chain Retrieved. 2019/11/04 RIoT Control: Understanding and Managing Risks and the Internet of Things Retrieved. 2019/11/04  ↩

  5. Department of Homeland Security 2009, October Developing an Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Incident Response Capability Retrieved. 2020/09/17  ↩

  6. M. Rentschler and H. Heine The Parallel Redundancy Protocol for industrial IP networks Retrieved. 2020/09/25  ↩

  7. National Institute of Standards and Technology 2013, April Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations Retrieved. 2020/09/17  ↩

  8. Anton Cherepanov, ESET 2017, June 12 Win32/Industroyer: A new threat for industrial control systems Retrieved. 2017/09/15  ↩

  9. Hydro Kevin Beaumont How Lockergoga took down Hydro ransomware used in targeted attacks aimed at big business Retrieved. 2019/10/16 Retrieved. 2019/10/16  ↩

  10. Kevin Beaumont How Lockergoga took down Hydro ransomware used in targeted attacks aimed at big business Retrieved. 2019/10/16  ↩