烏克蘭電網遭黑客攻擊 Hackers shut down Ukraine power grid

Hackers brought down the power supply to hundreds of homes in Ukraine last week, in a cyber attack believed to be the first ever to result in a power outage.

上週，烏克蘭數百戶家庭的供電遭到黑客破壞，據信這是有史以來首次導致停電的網絡攻擊。

The Ukrainian energy ministry said it was probing a “suspected” cyber attack on the power grid, targeting several regional power companies, which the country’s intelligence service blamed on “Russian special services”. Moscow has not responded to the allegation.

烏克蘭能源部表示，正在調查一起對電網發起的“疑似”網絡攻擊，這起攻擊的目標是數家地方性電力公司。烏克蘭情報部門認爲，這起攻擊是由“俄羅斯特殊部門”發動的。莫斯科方面未對這一指控作出迴應。

John Hultquist, head of cyber espionage intelligence at iSight partners, a US-based threat intelligence company, said it was the first time the cyber security industry had seen a cyber attack result in the shutdown of power.

iSight Partners網絡間諜情報負責人約翰胡爾特奎斯特(John Hultquist)表示，這是網絡安全行業首次目睹導致停電的網絡攻擊。iSight Partners是一家位於美國的安全威脅情報公司。

Experts have warned for years that the industrial systems that control critical infrastructure such as power plants are vulnerable. Malicious software, known as malware, has previously been discovered on these networks, but no one has yet linked these infections to an outage.

專家們多年前就開始提醒，像電廠這樣控制着關鍵基礎設施的工業系統很容易受到攻擊。此前在工業系統的網絡上已經發現了惡意軟件，但還沒有人將這些侵入與停電聯繫起來。

Mr Hultquist said that the versions of the malware used in the attack, called BlackEnergy, point to Russian hackers known as the Sandworm team who have previously infected power suppliers in the US and Europe. The malware was found in the west in 2014 and is thought to have been wiped from the targets’ networks.

胡爾特奎斯特表示，這起攻擊所用的惡意軟件名爲BlackEnergy，攻擊者應是被稱爲“沙蟲”(Sandworm)的俄羅斯黑客組織，他們先前曾攻陷過美國和歐洲的電力供應商。BlackEnergy於2014年出現在西方世界，人們以爲這款惡意軟件已從目標網絡中被清除。

Slovakian antivirus software firm Eset also said that it had found evidence of BlackEnergy being used in attacks on Ukrainian energy companies, which it said was focused on destruction rather than just deleting documents.

斯洛伐克殺毒軟件公司Eset還表示，它發現證據有表明，BlackEnergy被用於向烏克蘭能源企業發起攻擊。該公司還表示，這起攻擊的重點是造成破壞，而不僅僅是刪除文件。

Prykarpattyaoblenergo, a power company in western Ukraine, said that a “large-scale breakdown” had left several districts without power for hours on December 23, which it blamed on “interference”. The area included the regional capital, Ivano-Frankivsk, a city of 1.4m people.

烏克蘭西部的電力公司Prykarpattyaoblenergo表示，12月23日的“大規模故障”導致數個區域斷電幾個小時，該公司將此次故障歸因於“干擾”。停電區域包括該地區首府伊萬諾-弗蘭科夫斯克(Ivano-Frankivsk)，這座城市有140萬居民。

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have eased slightly since September as fighting has died down between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in breakaway regions in the east of the country.

去年9月起，烏克蘭與俄羅斯之間的緊張關係有所緩和，烏克蘭軍隊與受俄支持的分離主義分子在烏東部分離地區的戰鬥也平息了下來。

But they flared again in recent weeks after unidentified saboteurs brought down Ukrainian electricity supply lines carrying power to Crimea, plunging much of the Black Sea peninsula — which Russia annexed in 2014 — into darkness.

但隨着不明身份的破壞者破壞烏克蘭向克里米亞輸送電力的電纜，使這個位於黑海的半島（2014年被俄吞併）的許多地區陷入黑暗，雙方之間的關係在最近幾周再度緊張起來。