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Burlington Electric Emphasizes No Threat From Suspicious Activity

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The Burlington Electric Department confirmed Friday that it had found on one of its laptops a malware code the U.S. government says is used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services.  The announcement set off a firestorm of speculation that Russians were attempting to hack into the nation’s utility systems.  But officials at the utility say much of the furor over the incident is overblown.
The Burlington Electric Department, one of Vermont's two largest electric utilities, scanned all its computers following the Department of Homeland Security malware alert, isolated a laptop and alerted federal authorities.  The laptop contained malware that the U.S. government calls Grizzley Steppe. General Manager Neale Lunderville says the company and federal officials continue to investigate what he is calling suspicious internet traffic.  “There's no indication that we were targeted by anyone here at BED or even that the electric sector was targeted. And there really isn't any indication that it was Russians or anybody else. It was really just suspicious Internet traffic that the Department of Homeland Security asked us to look for. So right now we're continuing to work with federal authorities to investigate the matter to see if there's any more we can find out. Obviously we want to work really closely with them to help them trace back the origins of this suspicious traffic.”

In statements released over the holiday weekend, Burlington Electric emphasized that the laptop was not connected to the electric grid so its integrity and customer information was protected.  The company also believes that an official “improperly shared inaccurate information” with The Washington Post.  Lunderville says the newspaper failed to contact the utility before publishing its initial story.  “Once it went onto The Washington Post it went viral. On Friday the Twitter-verse was blowing up and even after we put out a statement correcting the record, you know, there's no way to stop that initial wave that kept rippling out really around the globe. Still this morning people are tweeting about how terrible it is that the Russians penetrated our electric grid. The fact is that it's just not true. At the utilities we take this stuff very seriously. We want to make sure that the integrity of our grid remains strong, that our customer data is protected and that our customers are getting the safe reliable affordable power that they're used to and they shouldn't have to deal with fake news.”

App developer and author Jesse Feiler says it would be remarkable if any digital device was completely free of suspicious material. Rather than be concerned, he says people should be thrilled that Burlington Electric found the malicious activity so quickly after the initial federal alert.  “In this case my understanding is they reported something. It was looked at and while they were looking at it somehow a tip or a leak went out and by the time they confirmed that no it was not something to be alarmed about news had gone out. The fact that this happened over New Year’s when there wasn't a great deal of news other than the fact that the ball dropped in Times Square sort of made it possible for this to get out.  Things worked properly. People saw something. They said something. It was investigated and they said no don't worry about it.”

Federal officials have indicated that the type of internet traffic related to the malicious cyber activity has also been observed elsewhere in the country. Officials in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut have said they are more closely monitoring their utility networks for suspicious activity.
 

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