(Idaho National Laboratory/flickr)
US officials have concluded that hackers working on behalf of a foreign power recently breached at least a dozen US nuclear power sites, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Bloomberg cited multiple US sources who said they had zeroed in on Russia as the primary suspect behind the most recent attacks, including one at Kansas' Wolf Creek nuclear facility.
Officials believe the attacks may be related to a separate hack that happened late last month, in which unidentified hackers infiltrated the business-associated end of the power plant. The name and location of that site were not released, but E&E News reported that federal investigators were looking into cyberattacks on multiple facilities at the time.
When reached for comment about the latest hacks, government officials and a spokesperson for Wolf Creek said the operational side of its network had not been affected.
"There was absolutely no operational impact to Wolf Creek," Jenny Hageman, a spokeswoman for the nuclear plant, said in a statement to Bloomberg News. "The reason that is true is because the operational computer systems are completely separate from the corporate network."
But the hacks have raised red flags for investigators who worry Russia may be gearing up to levy an attack against the US power grid. If that were the case, it would fit into a pattern adopted by Russia in the past, particularly as it relates to Ukraine.
In 2015, a massive cyberattack leveled against the country's power grid cut electricity to almost 250,000 Ukrainians. Cybersecurity experts linked the attack to IP addresses associated with Russia. Since then, Wired magazine's Andy Greenberg reported, Ukraine has seen a growing crisis in which an increasing number of Ukrainian corporations and government agencies have been hit by cyberattacks in a "rapid, remorseless succession."
(Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida in St. Petersburg, Russia, December 2, 2016.REUTERS/Dmitri Lovetsky/Pool)
Ukraine is now host to what may turn into a full-blown cyberwar, Greenberg reported. Two separate attacks on the country's power grid were part of what Greenberg called a "digital blitzkrieg" waged against it for the past three years, which multiple analysts have connected to Russian interests.
With respect to the recent cyberattacks on US nuclear facilities, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation said they were aware of the intrusions.
"There is no indication of a threat to public safety, as any potential impact appears to be limited to administrative and business networks," the agencies said in a statement.