How Nation-State Hackers Penetrated U.S. Infrastructure

What Happened?

The House Homeland Committee released its latest “Cyber Threat Snapshot,” highlighting a sharp rise in nation-state cyber operations against U.S. critical infrastructure sectors in 2025. The Committee disclosed that Chinese-sponsored Volt Typhoon APT operations have increased by over 150 percent, focusing on long-term espionage and pre-positioning within telecommunications, energy, and water treatment systems.

Iranian actors have ramped up destructive cyber attacks against U.S. power and water utilities, echoing known OT/ICS disruptions. Russia’s continuous probing of energy and manufacturing networks, combined with coordinated DDoS and supply chain attacks, represents a hybrid strategy to destabilize industrial operations. Meanwhile, North Korean groups have escalated ransomware campaigns targeting healthcare, telecommunications, and municipalities employing double extortion ransomware models that cripple operations and extract multimillion-dollar ransoms.

"There's no silver bullet in cybersecurity; only layered defense works."

How It Happened

Adversaries exploited critical vulnerabilities across poorly segmented networks and underprotected operational technology (OT) environments. Investigations revealed:



Unpatched zero-day vulnerabilities in SCADA and Cisco ASA systems.

Weak remote access controls that allowed unauthorized lateral movement across IT and OT networks.

Inconsistent implementation of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and failure to adopt zero trust architectures.

Credential theft and phishing attacks against infrastructure employees that enabled initial access.

Insufficient patch management for critical systems and inadequate continuous monitoring for anomaly detection.

The Volt Typhoon APT in particular leveraged stealthy living-off-the-land techniques, blending into legitimate network traffic, allowing prolonged dwell times undetected within telecommunications and energy systems.

"Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain remote control of the device."

How It Could Have Been Prevented

Sequenxa’s integrated cybersecurity platform could have mitigated many of these threats through a multi-layered defense-in-depth strategy. The following capabilities would have reduced exposure and damage:


AI-powered threat detection and continuous monitoring across IT and OT networks to identify lateral movement and privilege escalation early.

Zero trust architecture implementation to isolate network zones and enforce least privilege across industrial control systems.

Advanced vulnerability management to automatically detect, prioritize, and patch zero-day and Cisco ASA vulnerabilities.

OT/ICS risk assessment tools ensuring that programmable logic controllers and SCADA networks are segmented and protected from external interfaces.

Incident response tabletop exercises to strengthen response coordination under the National Cyber Incident Response Plan.

Multi-factor authentication and strong access control for remote maintenance systems.

Automated patch management and endpoint visibility to harden infrastructure against common ransomware entry points.



By aligning with CISA’s critical infrastructure protection guidance and Executive Order 14028 requirements, Sequenxa’s approach ensures compliance while improving operational resilience.

"Zero Trust means access to data and infrastructure is strictly limited and must be continuously verified for legitimacy."

Lessons

The “Cyber Threat Snapshot” emphasizes that cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure have evolved into a persistent, state-sponsored campaign targeting power grids, pipelines, healthcare institutions, and communication networks. Preventing future incidents requires:

Continuous monitoring and proactive threat hunting.

Segmentation of OT and IT to limit cascade failure impacts.

Adoption of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and NERC CIP standards.

Ongoing vulnerability and access control management.

Integration of physical and cyber protection strategies.

Ultimately, cybersecurity resilience must be treated not as a compliance checkbox but as a national security imperative.

"Implementing the NIST framework can lead to improved cybersecurity resilience across all critical sectors."