https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-19/situation-quite-severe-aluminum-giant-norsk-crippled-massive-ransomware-attack

Two years after some of the world's biggest corporations were hit by the WannaCry virus which morphed into the "biggest ransomware attack in history", and which subsequently was found to have been created with NSA hacking software, on Tuesday, Norsk Hydro ASA, one of the world’s biggest aluminum producers, said it had suffered widespread production outages after a ransomware attack affected operations across Europe and the U.S.

Norsk Hydro: Hydro subject to cyber-attack

Hydro became victim of an extensive cyber-attack in the early hours of Tuesday (CET), impacting operations in several of the company's business areas.

IT-systems in most business areas are impacted and Hydro is switching to manual operations as far as possible. Hydro is working to contain and neutralize the attack, but does not yet know the full extent of the situation.

The company called the situation "quite severe" and was still working to contain the effects of the attack, according to Bloomberg. Norsk couldn’t detail how much output had been impacted, but said the so-called potlines, which process molten aluminum and need to be kept running 24 hours a day, had switched to manual mode.

The cyber attack on Hydro began late Monday, escalating during the night, a spokeswoman said. Hydro, which also has major utility assets, said on its Facebook page that power plants are running normally on isolated IT systems. While the company’s website was down on Tuesday, Hydro “has established Facebook as our main external communication channel,” it said.

https://www.securityweek.com/australias-intelligence-agency-publishes-its-vulnerability-disclosure-process?

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Australia's intelligence agency responsible for foreign signals intelligence, has joined America's NSA and the UK's GCHQ in publishing an account of its vulnerabilities disclosure process. All three agencies are part of the Five Eyes western intelligence alliance – the remaining being Canada and New Zealand.

Australia's process starts with the assertion that its default position is to disclose all vulnerabilities it discovers, so that vendors can develop and issue patches. "Occasionally, however," it adds, "a security weakness will present a novel opportunity to obtain foreign intelligence that will help protect Australians. In these circumstances, the national interest might be better served by not disclosing the vulnerability." This is the same position as that taken by the NSA and the UK's GCHQ – if the agency believes it can make use of the vulnerability in the service of national security, it will retain it undisclosed for its own use.

The Australian government process (PDF) for deciding to release or retain is described in a brief document (one page of text and two diagrams) titled 'Responsible Release Principles for Cyber Security Vulnerabilities'. Very little detail is provided, and its content can be simply summarized. The default position is to disclose discovered vulnerabilities, unless there is a national security argument for retaining them.