Sep 20, 2026 · 41 min
A decade of attacks reshaped critical infrastructure risk
CyberWire Daily at 10: Critical infrastructure attacks over the last 10 years. [Special Edition]
The episode traces how cyber threats moved from isolated grid disruptions to interconnected risks spanning fuel, communications, water, and essential services.
- 1Industrial control systems became direct targets as legacy equipment gained internet-connected automation and attackers moved beyond ordinary corporate networks.
- 2NotPetya, Colonial Pipeline, and satellite disruptions showed how cyber operations can create physical, economic, and public consequences across borders.
- 3Underfunded infrastructure defenders face expanding threats, making preparation, resilience, and sustained security investment essential to keeping services running.
Don't miss
The hosts clarify that the Colonial Pipeline attackers did not directly stop fuel flow; the company shut down operations after its business systems were disrupted.
The brief
Maria Varmanzis and Dave Bittner mark The CyberWire Daily’s tenth anniversary by revisiting a decade in which critical infrastructure became a central cyber target.
The 2015 Ukraine power-grid attack and Industroyer showed that attackers could move from compromising nearby computers to communicating directly with industrial control systems.
NotPetya and Colonial Pipeline revealed different forms of fallout: a destructive operation crossing borders, and a business disruption that triggered a precautionary fuel shutdown.
The threat now reaches satellite communications, telecommunications, and water systems, where aging equipment, connectivity, and limited staffing leave little margin for error.
The hosts’ lasting lesson is resilience: defenders must prepare for disruptions to power, heat, cooling, communications, fuel, and water as interconnected services.