Spear phishing campaign targeted energy sector

A spear phishing campaign targeting 11 energy sector companies occurred last October, according to the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).

After an electric utility company posted to its website the names, company email addresses, and work titles of industry employees that attended a recent committee meeting, attackers were able to utilize the information to craft their messages, ICS-CERT said in its latest newsletter (PDF).

The malicious emails asked recipients to click on an attached link that would direct them to access the sender's new email address. Instead, the link led users to a website that served malware. Another email carrying a malicious attachment is believed to be associated to the campaign, according to the newsletter.

The campaign was unsuccessful, leading to no “known infections or intrusions,” the report said.