A hacking group, under the guidance of Russia’s Federal Security Service, may have compromised the I.P. address of a Canadian gas pipeline company in February and caused damage to its infrastructure, according to leaked Pentagon documents.
If the attack by the cybercriminal group, Zarya, succeeded, the intelligence report said, “it would mark the first time” the United States intelligence community “has observed a pro-Russia-hacking group execute a disruptive attack against Western industrial control systems.”
The New York Times was unable to verify the U.S. intelligence assessment independently, and the Canadian national agency responsible for signals intelligence and cybersecurity, the Communications Security Establishment, said it did not comment on specific cybersecurity episodes.
According to the Pentagon’s assessment, on Feb. 15, Zarya shared screenshots with the Federal Security Service — the main successor agency to the K.G.B., known by its Russian initials, F.S.B. — that purportedly showed that the attacker had the capability to increase valve pressure, disable alarms and make emergency shutdowns of an unspecified gas distribution station in Canada.
“The F.S.B. officers anticipated a successful operation would cause an explosion at the gas distribution station, and were monitoring Canadian news reports for indications of an explosion,” the report said.
