Shadow Figment fights hackers with honeypots. (Source: Storyblocks)

Shadow Figment Provides Protection from Malware with Honeypot Lures

Over the past several years, hackers have increasingly targeted the physical systems we rely on to run our society. Electrical utilities, food processing plants and aluminum producers are only a few of the industries that have recently been attacked, resulting in major supply chain disruptions.

Fortunately, innovative research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is bringing a new tool to the battle against this kind of cybercrime. They call it Shadow Figment.

If you have been involved or affected by these almost daily malware hacks then you will find this article from geekwire.com might give you some comfort.

What the PNNL has done has developed a “honeypot” of data that will give a hacker a very bad day. Richard Yonck wrote the article and here is some of his look at Shadow Figment and the man who helped develop it. The researcher is Thomas Edgar, an experienced Cyber Security Scientist with years of experience researching the science of cybersecurity and security of cyber-physical systems.

“The goal is to create a decoy of a specific control system so that an advanced attacker who’s targeting it believes they’ve found what their looking for,” explained Thomas Edgar, the cybersecurity researcher who led the PNNL project. “For instance, the decoys need to look like they’re part of an electrical system or part of a pipeline.”

Unlike data networks, industrial control systems (ICS) utilize countless instruments and sensors in order to operate. So, while a static decoy system may be suitable for a data honeypot, ICS decoys need to be much more dynamic and interactive in order to be convincing. The goal of keeping the hacker engaged requires a convincing system that can provide the feedback to make them believe they’ve gained access to a legitimate target.

 “We’re buying time so the defenders can take action to stop bad things from happening. Even a few minutes is sometimes all you need to stop an attack.”

 “We’re buying time so the defenders can take action to stop bad things from happening. Even a few minutes is sometimes all you need to stop an attack” says Edgar.

You can see how little security most companies have or even how little security is available at all. Hackers have long held the upper hand and unless Shadow Figment and other systems can stop this malware pandemic, it could be a bumpy ride for quite a while.

read more at geekwire.com