Trend Micro Creates Factory Honeypot and Traps Malicious Attackers

Six-month investigation results can help inform protection strategy for industrial environments

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HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 22 January 2020 - Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704),
a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today announced the results of a
six-month honeypot imitating an industrial factory. The highly sophisticated
Operational Technology (OT) honeypot attracted fraud and financially motivated
exploits.

 

The six-month investigation revealed that
unsecured industrial environments are primarily victims of common threats. The
honeypot was compromised for cryptocurrency mining, targeted by two separate
ransomware attacks, and used for consumer fraud.

 

“Too often, discussion of cyber
threats to industrial control systems (ICS) has been confined to highly
sophisticated, nation-state level attacks designed to sabotage key processes.
While these do present a risk to Industry 4.0, our research proves that more
commonplace threats are more likely,” said Greg Young, vice president of
cybersecurity for Trend Micro. “Owners of smaller factories and industrial
plants should therefore not assume that criminals will leave them alone. A lack
of basic protections can open the door to a relatively straightforward
ransomware or cryptojacking attack that could have serious consequences for the
bottom line.”

 

To better understand the attacks
targeting ICS environments, Trend Micro Research created a highly realistic,
industrial prototyping company. The honeypot consisted of real ICS hardware and
a mix of physical hosts and virtual machines to run the factory, which included
several programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human machine interfaces (HMIs),
separate robotic and engineering workstations and a file server.

 

Trend Micro urges smart factory owners
to minimize the number of ports they leave open and to tighten access control
policies, among other cybersecurity best practices. In addition, implementing
cybersecurity solutions designed for factories, like those offered by Trend
Micro, can help further mitigate the risk of attack.

 

To read more
about the research, including the design and deployment of the honeypot itself,
please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hk/security/news/internet-of-things/fake-company-real-threats-logs-from-a-smart-factory-honeypot.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro
Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the
world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for
consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data
centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. All our products work
together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected threat
defense with centralized visibility and control, enabling better, faster
protection. With more than 6,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world’s
most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro secures your connected
world. For more information, visit
www.trendmicro.com.hk.