Our Approach

Definitive Guide to Ransomware

Cybersecurity for the Energy sector

Hunt & Hackett has observed a discerning increase of activity of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups in the energy sector. There is this legendary saying on how to overcome your adversaries: 'know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated'. To know your enemy starts with gaining an understanding of your threat landscape, your adversaries’ intentions, their modus operandi, and specific attacking methods. The following sections provide a glimpse of the energy specific threat landscape to highlight what is going on and is followed-up by our approach on how to defend against it. The blog series which can be found at the bottom of this page provides further details of the energy threat landscape.

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Threat landscape

For the energy industry

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Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

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Tactics, Techniques & Procedures (TTPs)

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Attack tools

Energy Energy + related Broader focus All known
APTs 135 198 270 781
TTPs 1,840 2,174 2,611 4,109
Attack tools 1,711 1,964 2,183 3,616

Energy faces more cyber threats than ever

To stay in control becomes more difficult

Hunt & Hackett has developed a threat diagnostics system tracking the latest trends, and the situation for the energy industry is alarming. The energy industry finds itself at the center of the ongoing transition from fossil to renewable energy sources. This makes the sector, both renewable as fossil companies for new techniques and efficiency purposes, a prime target for organizations and nation-states seeking to stay up to date with the latest technologies and practices. Organizations that do not have integrated sufficient security measures are at risk of losing their competitive position.

Actors and their motivation

The most active attack groups targeting the energy sector are shown in this chart highlighting which motivations are driving the various actors active in this sector.

Knowing the APT groups, their motivations and origin countries provides a solid starting point for understanding what you are up against. To get a more comprehensive understanding of the threat landscape, it is important to research, map, and document your adversaries’ intentions to their modus operandi, attack methods and attack tools, as this provides more actionable information for strenghtening your defences.

More detailed information on the threat landscape for this sector?

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Our articles about the energy sector

From Hunt & Hackett experts

Our approach

Controlling your cybersecurity risks

In their fight against cyber attacks, our customers typically go through several stages of maturity. By ramping up their prevention, detection and incident readiness over time – and optimizing this for their actual threat landscape – they reach a point where they have developed solid resilience against targeted attacks, with only highly controlled and accepted risks remaining.

There is no simple 'fix' to become resilient against the sophisticated cyber threats of today. Without serious resources or processes for systematic security activities, protection against modern cyber threats like ransomware is just a wish. Hunt & Hackett has developed a unique threat- and sector-driven approach to cybersecurity, enabling you to work from your current situation to a highly improved and controlled situation, optimized for your specific threat landscape and context as an organisation.

Schietschijven1

STAGE 1: Unknown risk
Pre-monitoring
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Preventitive controls
 
Limited resilience
 
 
Schietschijven2-1

STAGE 2: Reduced risk
Post-monitoring
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Preventitive CIS controls (IG1)

Detection & response controls

Resilience against non-targeted attacks
Schietschijven3

STAGE 3: Controlled risk
Implemented roadmap
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Alignment between preventitive, detection & response CIS controls (IG2)

Resilience against non-targeted and semi-targeted attacks
 
Schietschijven4

STAGE 4: Highly controlled risk
Targeted attack resilience
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Full redundancy between preventitve, detection & response CIS controls (IG3)
 
Resilience against against advanced targeted attacks
 

Our services

Optimized for the energy industry

Because we use your actual threat landscape and your sector as our starting points, our services are optimised for your specific context and needs.

Managed Detection & Response (MDR)

We detect & react to attacker activity in your environment, minimizing the impact on your business.

Security Program Gap Assessment (SPGA)

We assess your current security program, threat landscape, security controls and risk.

Incident Response (IR)

We help you manage a cyber crisis and contain security incidents, breaches and cyber threats.

Breach & Attack Simulation (BAS)

We validate your security choices by simulating attacks.

Learn more about our threat research?