US electric utility subjected to almost year-long Volt Typhoon compromise

SecurityWeek reports that Massachusetts-based power utility Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments has been compromised by the Chinese state-sponsored threat operation Volt Typhoon for over 300 days in 2023.

Investigation into the breach, which was identified before Thanksgiving of that year, revealed that LELWD has been infiltrated by Volt Typhoon since February, reported Dragos researchers.

"The significance of the discovery of this attack is that it highlights that the adversary not only aimed to maintain persistent access to the victim's environment for a long tenure, but also were aiming to exfiltrate specific data related to [operational technology] operating procedures and spatial layout data relating to energy grid operations," said Dragos, which also noted that information obtained from the intrusion could facilitate more significant attacks.

Such findings come a year after Volt Typhoon, also known as Voltzite, was initially observed by Dragos to have been targeting data from organizations' OT systems.