Tag Archive for: nuclear

Alabama-based Sentar gets federal grant to boost cybersecurity for nuclear plants

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Federal grant money will help a business in Alabama build up the capability to address cybersecurity threats against U.S. nuclear power plants. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

Aug. 17 (UPI) — A federal grant will help with the development of a proof-of-concept study targeting potential cybersecurity threats at the nation’s nuclear power plants, Alabama-based Sentar said Thursday.

Sentar, which is geared toward cyber intelligence, said it secured a small-business research grant from its latest client, the Department of Energy.

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“Cyber resilience and reliability must become an operational imperative for critical infrastructure,” said Gary Mayes, the company’s senior research director. “It is essential to have the ability to mitigate damage once subjected to a cyber-attack and continue to maintain operations when systems or data have been compromised.”

The grant follows an early-year report from defense consultant Booz-Allen warning of cybersecurity threats from China. The Communist government, the report warned, uses cyberattacks “below the threshold of war” to target critical infrastructure in the United States.

Two years ago, the Port of Houston, among the largest in the country, was the target of a cyberattack that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director said was likely from an unidentified “nation-state actor.”

The White House released a national strategy to address the issue. The National Cybersecurity Strategy seeks to make two fundamental changes in the government’s digital security protocols, including a plan to enlist more help from the private sector to mitigate cyber risks, and a program to boost federal incentives to companies that make long-term investments in cybersecurity.

Sentar offered no details about its federal grant, though it did say that work on the project would begin immediately at its headquarters in Alabama.

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Nuclear Security Education: IAEA Partners with Universities and Research Institutions

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Aligning the available teaching materials on nuclear security with the latest IAEA guidance is an important stepping stone in the path to excellence in nuclear security education. This objective is among the key areas of work of the International Nuclear Security Education Network (INSEN), a partnership mechanism that facilitates the collaboration of the IAEA with educational and research institutions.

“Education and training in the area of nuclear security is an essential component of the IAEA’s nuclear security programme,” said Elena Buglova, Director of the IAEA Division of Nuclear Security, during the INSEN Annual meeting convened in Vienna in July. “By sharing experiences and good practices, INSEN members can further enhance their capacities in order to effectively contribute to strengthening nuclear security regimes through a sustainable nuclear security education.” 

Established in 2010, INSEN has 204 members and 13 observers from 72 countries. Their work includes the development of peer-reviewed teaching materials; faculty development in different areas of nuclear security; joint research activities; student exchange programmes; academic theses supervision and evaluation; knowledge management; promotion of nuclear security education; and other related activities.

During their recent annual meeting, 94 participants representing 45 INSEN member countries came together to review the implementation progress of the Network’s Action Plan to identify and evaluate the activities for the coming year.

The exchanges also covered topics such as the role of research in enhancing nuclear security, international collaboration, capacity building as well as gender equality.

“INSEN utilizes feedback received from its members and other international experts through meetings, personal communication, and surveys to understand the evolving nature of nuclear security, and assess the effectiveness of nuclear security education,” said Alpana Goel, Director of Amity Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology from India and Chair of INSEN.

The revision of existing nuclear security teaching materials according to the IAEA publication “Model Academic Curriculum in Nuclear…

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Extinction Event: The Disappearing Nuclear Expert

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Many training grounds for civilian arms control experts and nuclear strategists to fill government posts are also scrambling to recruit.

“People took it off their radar screen,” said former Massachusetts Democratic Rep. John Tierney, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Arms Control & Nonproliferation, which saw more than half a dozen of its staff members join the Biden administration. “There is plenty of expertise, but they are gray-haired now. There is a pipeline but not as many and not yet as deeply experienced.”

“And nobody has experience with the tri-party situation,” Tierney told me, referring to the steady expansion of China’s arsenal to potentially match the United States and Russia.

“A lot of the people I have to deal with, even in the military, aren’t that well informed,” added Adam Lowther, director of strategic deterrence programs at the National Strategic Research Institute, an arm the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the nuclear arsenal. “They don’t have experience or the background.”

Stephen Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which has been advocating for reductions in nuclear arsenals since the arrival of the nuclear age in 1945, believes the lack of experience and expertise is particularly acute in Congress, where few lawmakers or staff are steeped in arms control, nuclear strategy or deterrence theory.

The debates, in his view, “are almost solely on the cost of nuclear weapons and not their utility.”

Congress is about to get another wake-up call, however, in the form of the bipartisan commission’s upcoming report. The body represents some of the most divergent views on how the United States can reduce the chances of a nuclear clash. But there is widespread agreement in at least one regard.

“The underlying theme is that while it didn’t seem like we needed to pay attention to those issues after the Cold War ended, the fact is we should have because Russia continued to,” said Kyl. “And China began to develop its nuclear weapons in a new way. We are playing catch up.”

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Iranian hacking group impersonating nuclear experts to gain intel from Western think tanks

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A cyber espionage group linked to the Iranian government has been impersonating think-tank employees to phish Middle Eastern nuclear weapons experts, according to researchers at Proofpoint.

The group — called “TA453,” “Charming Kitten” or “APT35,” depending on the threat intelligence service you’re relying on — has a long track record of targeting U.S. and European government officials, politicians, think tanks and entities involved in critical infrastructure.

The latest campaign detailed by Proofpoint dates from March to May of this year and begins with benign emails that seek to establish a rapport with foreign policy researchers in the West.

Those initial emails were later followed by phishing emails that link to a password-protected DropBox URL, ostensibly to access the research. Instead, it executes .RAR and LNK files and run a PowerShell script that installs a backdoor on the victim’s system, before calling out to a cloud hosting provider for additional malware payloads.

Full infection chain for GorjolEcho, one of the malware payloads deployed by Charming Kitten (Source: Proofpoint)

Joshua Miller, senior threat researcher at Proofpoint, told SC Media the campaign appears to be extremely targeted: thus far they are aware of fewer than 10 individuals who received phishing emails from the group. Miller said their visibility over the campaign is restricted to data and follow-ups culled from Proofpoint customers, and that none were successfully infected.

It’s not the first time Charming Kitten, which U.S. officials have linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence organization, has targeted think tanks and other research institutions, seemingly in an effort to gather intelligence about Western foreign policy decision-making. While the group has targeted government officials in the past, they may find it easier to obtain some of the same information they’re looking for by targeting and compromising parties at the edge of those discussions.

“When we see them go after think tanks [and] academics, basically they’re informing the policy positions of the West and governments for nuclear sanctions or diplomatic policies. The idea is that that…

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