Our focus on this podcast is cybersecurity at utilities. Electric, gas, and water utilities face billions of automated probes every year. While only a fraction of probes is successful, the cost of such attacks runs into the billions. We’re joined by two guests offering the perspectives from a small, municipal-owned utility and from a large, multistate investor-owned utility.
Our focus on this podcast is cybersecurity at utilities. Electric, gas, and water utilities face billions of automated probes every year. While only a fraction of probes is successful, the cost of such attacks runs into the billions and systems are vulnerable because of aging infrastructure, a large number of small systems without large IT staffs, and sometimes poor cybersecurity culture.
To discuss the threat situation, we talked with David Ketchen, the assistant general manager at the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Mass. , and Bill Murray, a senior vice president with Dominion Energy, an energy holding company in Virginia.
Ketchen detailed a widely reported attack by Chinese hackers at his small utility in 2023 that he and others at the utility became aware of after being contacted by the FBI. Working with the FBI and federal officials from Homeland Security, the utility was able to monitor the hackers and there was no disruption of service. But Ketchen said the utility learned valuable lessons that others, particularly at smaller utilities, can learn from.
Murray offered the perspective of large utilities and the systems their organizations use, defend off attacks from attackers, from transnational criminal organizations and nation states.
Resources
Cybersecurity Threats Facing Utilities | OAS Episode 270 | Sept. 27, 2026
SUMMARY
Our focus on this podcast is cybersecurity at utilities. Electric, gas, and water utilities face billions of automated probes every year. While only a fraction of probes is successful, the cost of such attacks runs into the billions and systems are vulnerable because of aging infrastructure, a large number of small systems without large IT staffs, and sometimes poor cybersecurity culture.
To discuss the threat situation, we talked with David Ketchen, the assistant general manager at the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Mass. , and Bill Murray, a senior vice president with Dominion Energy, an energy holding company in Virginia.
Ketchen detailed a widely reported attack by Chinese hackers at his small utility in 2023 that he and others at the utility became aware of after being contacted by the FBI. Working with the FBI and federal officials from Homeland Security, the utility was able to monitor the hackers and there was no disruption of service. But Ketchen said the utility learned valuable lessons that others, particularly at smaller utilities, can learn from.
Murray offered the perspective of large utilities and the systems their organizations use, defend off attacks from attackers, from transnational criminal organizations and nation states.
MARKETING SUMMARY
Our focus on this podcast is cybersecurity at utilities. Electric, gas, and water utilities face billions of automated probes every year. While only a fraction of probes is successful, the cost of such attacks runs into the billions. We’re joined by two guests offering the perspectives from a small, municipal-owned utility and from a large, multistate investor-owned utility.
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QUOTE
“The figure that we use is about 3.5 billion cyberattacks per month. That's billion with a B, and we're concerned about all of them coming both from hostile nations and from transnational crime. So, we see every range of cyberthreat at a scale north of a 100 million a day.”
--Bill Murray, the senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications at Dominion Energy
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media Posts
#NCSLpodcasts: “They had been on our system undetected for 10 or 11 months due to a firewall compromise that hadn't been patched properly,” says David Ketchen, the assistant general manager at the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Mass. , discussing a cyberattack by Chinese hackers.
#NCSLpodcasts: They're just looking for anyone and everyone that they can attack and just try and at the very least strike fear in people. And then if they're really successful, they can do physical damage to utilities like us, like water departments, electric companies,” says David Ketchen, the assistant general manager at the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Mass. , discussing a cyberattack by Chinese hackers.
#NCSLpodcasts: “Cybersecurity needs to be at the forefront of every utility's mind in every aspect of your department and decision making from the top to bottom. So, it really needs to be ingrained in everyone's philosophies and strategies moving forward from today until the end of time probably,” says David Ketchen, the assistant general manager at the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Mass. , whose utility was attacked by Chinese hackers in 2023.
#NCSLpodcasts: “The figure that we use is about 3.5 billion cyberattacks per month. That's billion with a B, and we're concerned about all of them coming both from hostile nations and from transnational crime. So, we see every range of cyberthreat at a scale north of a 100 million a day,” says Bill Murray, the senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications at Dominion Energy
#NCSLpodcasts: “We now have an integrated security program that looks at physical threats, manmade physical threats, natural disasters, cyberattacks, all as part of one effort, not a series of disconnected efforts. So, the key learning has been that security is one thing, it's not a bunch of things,” says Bill Murray, the senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications at Dominion Energy
#NCSLpodcasts: “We need the defense to keep the upper hand technologically, and that's what we work toward every day with our partners,” says Bill Murray, the senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications at Dominion Energy
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§ @DomEnergyNews
RESOURCES