NSA warns that cybercriminals are targeting this one critical component that the energy, chemical, food, agriculture, and transportation sectors rely on - here's what we know

Date:
Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:10:00 +0000

Description:
ATG owners are urged to tighten up on security and keep track of potential attacks.

FULL STORY
Critical
infrastructure organizations should move to harden their Automatic Tank Gauge (ATG) systems to defend against ongoing attacks. This is the warning given earlier this week by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other agencies.

In a joint press release, these agencies said they were aware of malicious cyber activity targeting US-based automatic tank gauge systems. The authoring organizations urge ATG owners and operators to defend against this malicious activity by securing their ATG systems with strong passwords and by removing them from the internet to reduce public exposure.

A list of mitigations -- ATG systems are monitoring devices
used in fuel storage tanks that automatically measure fuel levels, temperature, potential leaks, and other vitals, helping operators manage inventory and detect problems early.

The agencies could not attribute the ongoing attacks to any specific threat actor or nation-state but did say what the companies should pay attention to. Apparently, the attackers are either using hardcoded credentials, command execution and SQL Injection attacks, or privilege escalation, to access the devices.

Once they are inside, the attackers usually change system attributes (network settings, product identifiers, tank volumes, pump controls), compound operational malfunctions, and disable system alerts.

The advisory lists a number of things organizations can do to mitigate the risk, including eliminating public internet exposure, restricting access ,
and enforcing tougher credential security. The full list of mitigation suggestions can be found on this link (in the article linked below).

Securing critical infrastructure has always been a challenge for nation-states, and now with the advent of AI, it has only gotten more difficult. To that end, earlier this week, the UK GCHQ debuted the worlds first AI cyber-defense system.

In an annual lecture held earlier this week at Bletchley Park, GCHQ director Anne Keast-Bulter laid out the plans for the shield, mentioning that Russia and China are posing an ever-increasing cyber-threat to the UKs national interests and way of life.

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/nsa-warns-that-cybercriminals-are-targe ting-this-one-critical-component-that-the-energy-chemical-food-agriculture-and -transportation-sectors-rely-on-heres-what-we-know

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