Saturday, December 31, 2016
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Several states around the country on Saturday asked cybersecurity experts to re-examine state and utility networks after a Vermont utility's laptop was found to contain malware U.S. officials say is linked to Russian hackers.
The Burlington Electric Department, one of Vermont's two largest electric utilities, confirmed Friday it had found on one of its laptops the malware code used in Grizzly Steppe, the name the U.S. government has given to malicious cyber activity by Russian civilian and military intelligence services.
A Burlington Electric Department spokesman said federal officials have told company officials the threat was not unique to them.
The Department of Homeland Security said it had no information indicating the power grid was penetrated in the cyber invasion. A spokesman wouldn't say whether any other utilities, organizations or entities had reported similar malware on their systems but said any such information would be confidential.
Officials in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut said they're more closely monitoring state and utility networks for anything suspicious.
"We have not detected any activity matching the reported malware at this time," Connecticut governor's office spokesman Chris Collibee said.