UK And US Accuse Russia Of Hacking Home Routers In Global Cyberattacks

The U.K. and U.S. blamed Russian hackers for a campaign aimed at taking control of routers inside government, critical infrastructure and internet service providers, but also within small and home offices. The warning came in a joint announcement from British intelligence, the National Security Council (NSC), the DHS and the FBI on Monday. In a media briefing ahead of the announcement, Rob Joyce, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator at the National Security Council, said there was “high confidence” Russia was behind the attacks. The hacks were being tracked by British intelligence from a year ago, said Ciaran Martin, director of U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre, run out of intelligence agency GCHQ, whilst the U.S. noted the attacks started back in 2015.

The joint technical alert said Russian state-sponsored hackers had attempted to breach network routers, switches, firewalls and network intrusion detection systems across the world. Those routers were compromised to carry out so-called “man-in-the-middle” attacks where data going between computers and internet servers is intercepted, the NCSC said. That was being done “to support espionage, extract intellectual property, maintain persistent access to victim networks and potentially lay a foundation for future offensive operations,” according to a statement from the NCSC.

[Lifewire, and many other publications, list ways to secure your router. The Lifewire link is HERE]