The Federal Bureau of Inquiry announced today that they had
arrested Willie Cole, a maintenance worker at the Intershop Meat Plant in
connection with the recent spate of ammonia releases at the facility. Cole
admitted to FBI agents that he had inserted the thumb drive into the computer
that controlled the Kühlsicherheit refrigeration safety system.
Johnathan Quest, FBI spokesman, told reporters that: “Cole
said that he was upset with the companies continued operation during the
COVID-19 epidemic, especially after hearing news reports of illness and deaths
at other plants across the country.”
Dade Murphy from Dragonfire Cyber has been helping ECS-CERT
in their investigation of the hacking incident. He told reporters that the
thumb drive found in the safety system contained a copy of AmmoniakSaugt, a safety-system worm. “This
malware searches out PLC’s in the Robotron Kühlsicherheit refrigeration safety
system and effects the operation of both the pressure relief valves on the
system and ammonia sensors connected to the system” he explained.
The malware was authored by Stasi Ehemalige, a German
hacking collective. They have been active in attacking systems from Robotron.
The FBI is still investigating how Cole is related to Stasi Ehemalige and how
he obtained the thumb drive used in the attack.
Junior Butts, a lawyer representing Cole and other workers
at Intershop told reporters that Cole will be pleading innocent at tomorrow’s
expected arraignment. “Cole is being caught up in an ongoing labor dispute
about Intershop’s continued unsafe operations” Butts said.
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