{"id":10416,"date":"2018-07-26T21:59:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T21:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/26\/with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:30:32","slug":"with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/cyber\/2018\/07\/26\/with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar\/","title":{"rendered":"With hacking of US utilities, Russia could move from cyberespionage toward cyberwar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even before the revelation July 23 that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer systems of U.S. electric utilities and could have caused blackouts, government agencies and electricity industry leaders were working to protect U.S. customers and society as a whole. These developments, alarming as they might seem, are not new. But they highlight an important distinction of conflict in cyberspace: between probing and attacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/newsletters\/daily-brief\/2018\/07\/26\/how-russian-hackers-tricked-people-into-giving-their-passwords\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18206765326108.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">How Russian hackers tricked people into giving their passwords<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Russian hackers who penetrated hundreds of U.S. utilities, manufacturing plants and other facilities last year gained access by using the most conventional of phishing tools, tricking staffers into entering passwords, officials say.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Various adversaries \u2014 including Russia, but also China, North Korea and Iran \u2014 have been testing and mapping U.S. industrial systems for years. Yet to date there has been no public acknowledgment of physical damage from a foreign cyberattack on U.S. soil on the scale of Russia shutting off electricity in the Ukrainian capital or Iran attacking a Saudi Arabian government-owned oil company, destroying tens of thousands of computers and allegedly attempting to cause an explosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. and its allies have substantial capabilities, too, some of which have reportedly been directed against foreign powers. Stuxnet, for instance, was a cyberattack often attributed to the U.S. and Israel that disrupted Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons development efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The distinction between exploiting weaknesses to gather information \u2013 also known as \u201cintelligence preparation of the battlefield\u201d \u2014 and using those vulnerabilities to actually do damage is impossibly thin and depends on the intent of the people doing it. Intentions are notoriously difficult to figure out. In global cyberspace they may change depending on world events and international relations. The dangers \u2014 to the people of the U.S. and other countries both allied and opposed \u2014 underscore the importance of international agreement on what constitutes an act of war in cyberspace and the need for clear rules of engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/24\/how-the-russian-government-attacks-the-american-electric-grid\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/JYLJGKH45RFZZA3MUMKQPNU2EA.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">How the Russian government allegedly attacks the American electric grid<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Russian government attacks America&#039;s electric grid by targeting the company&#039;s employees with phishing and malicious software.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Advanced adversaries<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, where we serve, hosted a forum on protecting energy infrastructure. At that event, a Duke Energy Corporation executive reported that in 2017, the company experienced over 650 million attempts to intrude into their system. That number is startling, though hard to contextualize. More generally, however, some efforts directed against the U.S. are extremely sophisticated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federal officials have said that starting in 2016, continuing in 2017 and likely still ongoing, Russian government attacks took advantage of trusting relationships between key vendors of services related to equipment and operations for utility companies. Compromising the vendors\u2019 computers was the first step toward breaching the security of systems not directly connected to the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not just electric utilities \u2014 crucial though they are to almost every aspect of modern society. The Russian intrusion targeted computerized industrial control systems that are at the beating hearts of every part of critical public and private infrastructure, including water, energy, telecommunications and manufacturing. In the U.S., more than 85 percent of those critical potential targets are owned and operated by private companies. Once considered safely on home soil far from conflict, these firms are now at the center of the international cyberspace battleground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Setting up defenses<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The energy industry has invested heavily in protecting itself, and is leveraging a sector-wide collaboration called the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center to communicate between companies about warnings and threats to grid operations. But the task is too great \u2013 and the consequences to public health and safety too severe \u2014 for private companies to handle the burden on their own. As a result, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been investigating breaches like the Russian intrusions, and briefing industry leaders about what it finds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that DHS cybersecurity experts are \u201clooking for evidence that the Russians are automating their attacks, which \u2026 could presage a large increase in hacking efforts.\u201d That possibility, taken together with the energy-sector focus of the utility-hacking effort and the perpetrators\u2019 interest in industrial control systems, could be a signal that Russia may be considering shifting from exploring U.S. utility systems to actually attacking them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An upcoming meeting may deepen federal-corporate collaboration: On July 31, the Department of Homeland Security is hosting a National Cybersecurity Summit to bring together government, industry and academic experts in protecting the country\u2019s most important infrastructure. It will take all their efforts to keep up with the threats, particularly as the underlying techniques and technologies continue to evolve. The \u201cinternet of things,\u201d for instance, connects physical devices in ways that merge the virtual world with the real one \u2013 making people only as safe as the weakest link in the network or supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The federal hint about identifying automated attacks offers a glimpse into the not-too-distant future. In 2017, Russian President Putin declared that \u201cWhoever becomes the leader in [artificial intelligence] will become the ruler of the world.\u201d In May 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the Chinese Academies of Sciences and Engineering of his plan to make China \u201ca world leader in science and technology,\u201d which includes \u201cintegration of the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence with the real economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those statements, and the inexorable march of research and development, mean that machine learning \u2014 and ultimately quantum computing too \u2014 will play an increasing role in cyberespionage and cyberwarfare, as well as cybersecurity. The line between probing and attacking \u2014 and between defensive readiness and offensive preparation \u2014 may get even thinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here: <\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar-100503\" target=\"_blank\"><i>http:\/\/theconversation.com\/with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar-100503<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even before the revelation on July 23 that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer systems of U.S. electric utilities and could have caused blackouts, government agencies and electricity industry leaders were working to protect U.S. customers and society as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5433],"class_list":["post-10416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"U5O4D5YOEBGC5LITGFCELK3NUM","arc_canonical_url":"\/critical-infrastructure\/2018\/07\/26\/with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>With hacking of US utilities, Russia could move from cyberespionage toward cyberwar - C4ISRNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even before the revelation on July 23 that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer systems of U.S. electric utilities and could have caused blackouts, government agencies and electricity industry leaders were working to protect U.S. customers and society as a whole.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"With hacking of US utilities, Russia could move from cyberespionage toward cyberwar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even before the revelation on July 23 that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer systems of U.S. electric utilities and could have caused blackouts, government agencies and electricity industry leaders were working to protect U.S. customers and society as a whole.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/cyber\/2018\/07\/26\/with-hacking-of-us-utilities-russia-could-move-from-cyberespionage-toward-cyberwar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"C4ISRNet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-26T21:59:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T04:30:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank J. 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