Hackers target energy firms

Advanced hackers have targeted US and European energy companies in a cyber espionage campaign that has in some cases successfully broken into the core systems that control the companies’ operations, according to researchers at the security firm Symantec.

Malicious email campaigns have been used to gain entry into organisations in the US, Turkey and Switzerland, and likely other countries well, Symantec said in a new report.

The cyber attacks, which began in late 2015 but increased in frequency in April, are probably the work of a foreign government and bear the hallmarks of a hacking group known as Dragonfly, Eric Chien, a cyber security researcher at Symantec, said in an interview.