A cybersecurity CEO has warned that Russia-linked hackers almost brought down about a dozen U.S. electric and gas facilities in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, as Politico reports.

Robert Lee, who runs cybersecurity firm Dragos, said hackers with an organization his firm dubs “Chernovite” used malware to attack the facilities and were repelled by a U.S. government and cybersecurity industry coalition. “This is the closest we’ve ever been to having U.S. or European infrastructure, I’d say U.S. infrastructure, go offline,” Lee told reporters in a briefing. 

Lee’s remarks indicate that the threat to industrial control systems from new malware called PIPEDREAM, disclosed by the U.S. government last year, was worse than previously revealed. Chernovite used PIPEDREAM malware; while Dragos does not link cybercrime groups to nation states, other security researchers have tied the software to Russia.

Meanwhile, as the Verge reports, semiconductor industry supplier ASML has disclosed a data breach where a former employee in China stole information relating to proprietary technology. ASML produces the specialized lithography machines that chipmakers, such as Intel and TSMC, rely on to manufacturer bleeding-edge semiconductors. ASML said it didn’t think the breach would hurt its business.

ASML didn’t share many details, but the breach is the second that the Dutch tech company has reported in two years involving China-based actors. The disclosure comes shortly after the governments of the United States, the Netherlands and Japan agreed to restrict the export of advanced semiconductor manufacturing gear to China.

As The Washington Post reports, a Washington, D.C. think tank called Bipartisan Policy Center has released a list of the top of cyber risks for 2023, with the “evolving geopolitical environment” leading the way. The think tank warned of potential cyberattacks linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as conflicts between China and Western nations.