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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, January 1, 2017
By Juliet Eilperin and Adam Entous December 31 at 11:50 AM
A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.
A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.
While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations,
according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
discuss a security matter, the discovery underscores the vulnerabilities
of the nation’s electrical grid. And it raises fears in the U.S.
government that Russian government hackers are actively trying to
penetrate the grid to carry out potential attacks.
Officials in government and the utility industry regularly monitor the
grid because it is highly computerized and any disruptions can have
disastrous implications for the country’s medical and emergency
services.
Burlington Electric said in a statement that the company detected a
malware code used in the Grizzly Steppe operation in a laptop that was
not connected to the organization’s grid systems. The firm said it took
immediate action to isolate the laptop and alert federal authorities.
Friday night, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) called on federal officials
“to conduct a full and complete investigation of this incident and
undertake remedies to ensure that this never happens again.”
“Vermonters and all Americans should be both alarmed and outraged that
one of the world’s leading thugs, Vladimir Putin, has been attempting to
hack our electric grid, which we rely upon to support our
quality-of-life, economy, health, and safety,” Shumlin said in a
statement. “This episode should highlight the urgent need for our
federal government to vigorously pursue and put an end to this sort of
Russian meddling.”
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said he was briefed on the attempts to
penetrate the electric grid by Vermont State Police on Friday evening.
“This is beyond hackers having electronic joy rides — this is now about
trying to access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut
it down in the middle of winter,” Leahy said in a statement. “That is a
direct threat to Vermont and we do not take it lightly.”
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said the attack shows how rampant Russian
hacking is. “It’s systemic, relentless, predatory,” Welch said . “They
will hack everywhere, even Vermont, in pursuit of opportunities to
disrupt our country. We must remain vigilant, which is why I support
President Obama’s sanctions against Russia and its attacks on our
country and what it stands for.”
American officials, including one senior administration official, said
they are not yet sure what the intentions of the Russians might have
been. The incursion may have been designed to disrupt the utility’s
operations or as a test to see whether they could penetrate a portion of
the grid.
Officials said that it is unclear when the code entered the Vermont
utility’s computer, and that an investigation will attempt to determine
the timing and nature of the intrusion, as well as whether other
utilities were similarly targeted.
“The question remains: Are they in other systems and what was the intent?” a U.S. official said.
This week, officials from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shared the Grizzly
Steppe malware code with executives from 16 sectors nationwide,
including the financial, utility and transportation industries, a senior
administration official said.
Vermont utility officials identified the code within their operations
and reported it to federal officials Friday, the official said.
The Post's Karen DeYoung looks at the implications of the latest measures taken by the Obama administration against Russia and its interference in the U.S. election. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
The Post's Karen DeYoung looks at the implications of the latest measures taken by the Obama administration against Russia and its interference in the U.S. election. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
The DHS and FBI also publicly posted information about the malware Thursday as part of a joint analysis report, saying that the Russian military and civilian services’ activity “is part of an ongoing campaign of cyber-
enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and its citizens.”
Another senior administration official, who also spoke on the condition
of anonymity to discuss security matters, said in an email that “by
exposing Russian malware” in the joint analysis report, “the
administration sought to alert all network defenders in the United
States and abroad to this malicious activity to better secure their
networks and defend against Russian malicious cyber activity.”
According to the report by the FBI and DHS, the hackers involved in the
Russian operation used fraudulent emails that tricked their recipients
into revealing passwords.
Russian hackers, U.S. intelligence agencies say, earlier obtained a raft
of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, which were
later released by WikiLeaks during this year’s presidential campaign.
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the veracity of
U.S. intelligence pointing to Russia’s responsibility for hacks in the
run-up to the Nov. 8 election. He also has spoken highly of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, despite President Obama’s suggestion that the
approval for hacking came from the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said it would be “highly inappropriate to
comment” on the incident given the fact that Spicer has not been briefed
by federal authorities at this point.
Obama has been criticized by lawmakers from both parties for not
retaliating against Russia before the election. But officials said the
president was concerned that U.S. countermeasures could prompt a wider
effort by Moscow to disrupt the counting of votes on Election Day,
potentially leading to a wider conflict.
Officials said Obama also was concerned that taking retaliatory action
before the election would be perceived as an effort to help the campaign
of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
On Thursday, when Obama announced new economic measures against Russia
and the expulsion of 35 Russian officials from the United States in
retaliation for what he said was a deliberate attempt to interfere with
the election, Trump told reporters, “It’s time for our country to move
on to bigger and better things.”
Trump has agreed to meet with U.S. intelligence officials next week to discuss allegations surrounding Russia’s online activity.
Russia has been accused in the past of launching a cyberattack on
Ukraine’s electrical grid, something it has denied. Cybersecurity
experts say a hack in December 2015 destabilized Kiev’s power grid,
causing a blackout in part of the Ukrainian capital. On Thursday,
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of waging a hacking
war on his country that has entailed 6,500 attacks against Ukrainian
state institutions over the past two months.
Since at least 2009, U.S. authorities have tracked efforts by China,
Russia and other countries to implant malicious software inside
computers used by U.S. utilities. It is unclear if the code used in
those earlier attacks was similar to what was found in the Vermont case.
In November 2014, for example, federal authorities reported that a
Russian malware known as BlackEnergy had been detected in the software
controlling electric turbines in the United States.
The Russian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Representatives for the Energy Department and DHS declined to
comment Friday.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story
incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric
grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The
computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the
grid.