Honeywell: "Silent Residency" driving cyber threats for industrial and critical infrastructure facilities

ATLANTA, April 29, 2024 — New research from Honeywell provides insight into just how dangerous unchecked USB devices can be in operational technology (OT)  environments.

Honeywell discovered that adversaries are now using USB devices to gain access to industrial control systems, where they can hide and observe operations before launching attacks that leverage the inherent capabilities of the systems, known as “living off the land” (LotL) attacks. These attacks are less dependent on exploiting vulnerabilities and more focused on collecting information, evading detection and manipulating the target systems. 

“Targeted cyber-physical attacks are no longer about zero-day exploits that take advantage of 
an unknown or unaddressed vulnerability. Instead, they are more about silent residency – using LotL attacks to wait until there is an opportune moment to turn a system against itself,” said Micheal Ruiz, vice president of OT cybersecurity for Honeywell.

Now in its sixth year, the report’s findings underscore the severity of the risk USB-borne malware poses to industrial and critical infrastructure facilities. Findings indicate that adversaries now have a strong understanding of industrial environments and how they operate.

According to the report, most of the malware detected on USB devices by Honeywell’s Secure Media Exchange could cause loss of view or loss of control of an industrial process, a potentially catastrophic scenario for operators.

“As digital transformation and automation accelerate, so does the exposure to sophisticated and malicious cyberattacks that can have devastating consequences in terms of reputation, safety and continuity,” said Ruiz. “There are numerous ways a bad actor can infiltrate an OT environment, including USBs. With Honeywell’s advanced end-to-end technology and deep experience, we partner with our customers to improve their ability to protect their assets and data from these threats.”

The 2024 report is based on the Honeywell Global Analysis, Research and Defense (GARD) team’s tracking and analysis of aggregated cybersecurity threat data from hundreds of industrial facilities globally during a 12-month period.

Several of the report’s additional key findings included:

• USB devices continue to be used as an initial attack vector into industrial environments, as 51% of malware is designed to spread via USB, a nearly six-fold increase from 9% in 2019.
• Content-based malware, which uses existing documents and scripting functions maliciously, is on the rise, accounting for 20% of malware. 
• Over 13% of all malware blocked specifically leveraged the inherent capabilities of common documents, such as Word, Excel and PDF documents.
• Malware can cause significant impact, such as loss of view, loss of control, or system outages in OT environments. 82% of malware is capable of causing disruption to industrial operations.

To download the full report, visit: https://hcenews.honeywell.com/CYB-2024-Threat-Report-LP.html