Connecticut officials are responding to growing threats from hackers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They are doubling down on cybersecurity.
A private cybersecurity firm said hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government have broken into computer systems in about six U.S. states in the past year. Governor Ned Lamont said Connecticut is not one of them.
“I have not heard of any formal threats. But boy are we ready,” Lamont said.
He said international unrest caused by the war in Ukraine has led the state to increase monitoring of less obvious targets.
“For example, filtration systems in a local reservoir. Not necessarily a high priority when you think of systemic outages. But think of what that does psychologically if people say I can’t drink water right now. So, we are working very closely in terms of trying to target those things that might be likely targets for those hackers,” Lamont said.
Lamont was at Fairfield University to highlight the state’s efforts. Connecticut educational institutions and school systems have thwarted more than 200 hacker attacks since the beginning of the academic year.
