Russian Hackers Targeting US Critical Infrastructure: FBI Warns | World News
The FBI warned that pirates connected to Russia targeted thousands of network devices connected to critical infrastructure IT systems since last year, taking advantage of a flaw in old Cisco software.
Including Russia’s FSB
According to a threat consultant published by Sarah McBroom and Brandon White on the Cisco Talos blog, the Hack Group, which benefited from the defect known as the Static Tundra, is a sponsored espionage unit of the Russian government, and the central 16 of the FSB has specialized to protect network information to collect permanent intelligence.
Computer Pirates 7 benefit from the old security vulnerability
According to consultancy, computer pirates use seven years of fragility in Cisco IOS software and target -ending network devices.
“The group actively uses a seven-year-old fragility (Cve-2018-0171) in Cisco IOS Software’s smart installation feature, to steal configuration data and create permanent access (CV-2018-0171), which is patched in the smart loading feature of Cisco IOS Software.”
Consultancy warns that other government -backed cyber groups are carrying out attacks similar to network devices and underlining the emergency needs of widespread patch and safety increases in all organizations.
“The threat extends beyond Russia’s operations-other actors with state-supported actors are probably conducting a similar network device reconciliation campaigns, making comprehensive patch and safety hardening for all organizations. Threat actors will continue to abuse the devices that enable the activation of non-opened and intelligent installation.”
Computer Pirates Target
Consultancy says that the main objectives are organizations in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, chosen for the Russian government due to its strategic importance for the Russian government, are organizations in the telecommunication, higher education and production sectors.
“Primary objectives include organizations in telecommunications, higher education and production sectors in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, and the victims were selected on their strategic interest to the Russian government.”
In March 2022, the US Department of Justice accused four Russian citizens because they were involved in targeting the global energy sector illegally from 2012 to 2018.
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