Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

State-Sponsored Russian Hackers Actively Seeking To Hijack Essential Internet Hardware, US and UK Intelligence Agencies Say (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the growing-tension dept.

State-sponsored Russian hackers are actively seeking to hijack essential internet hardware, US and UK intelligence agencies say. BBC reports: The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security issued a joint alert warning of a global campaign. The alert details methods used to take over essential network hardware. The attacks could be an attempt by Russia to gain a foothold for use in a future offensive, it said. "Russia is our most capable hostile adversary in cyber-space, so dealing with their attacks is a major priority for the National Cyber Security Centre and our US allies," said Ciaran Martin, head of the NCSC in a statement. The alert said attacks were aimed at routers and switches that directed traffic around the net. Compromised devices were used to look at data passing through them, so Russia could scoop up valuable intellectual property, business information and other intelligence.

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. We really missed an opportunity by Lucas123 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Amid all the snarky comments about how Russia's encroaching on the U.S. and U.K.'s state cyber hacking business, Russia does seem more dark and foreboding than anytime post Cold War- and Perestroika/Glasnost.

    It always seemed to me the U.S. and its NATO allies lost an enormous opportunity to reach out to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union to help them economically and socially embrace the West's principals. It would have been to our mutual advantage. Instead, it felt like we wasted that opportunity gloating over the USSR's demise, and secretly cheering on the corruption that took hold.

    With Putin cemented in power, it feels like we've been transported back 30 years.

    1. Re:We really missed an opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The Russians are psychotically paranoid with good reason. Everything they try fails and costs them plenty as they grow increasingly desperate for any sort of validation. Hopefully they will implode before they resort to first use of nuclear weapons, but it anyone goes there, you can bet it will be them. And for some grandiosely stupid reason.

  2. Re:What I say is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's been going on since the days of the telegraph. It's only news right now because the media is trying to create some Trump - Russia connection.

  3. Nearsighted by thunderclees · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Russia is our most capable hostile adversary in cyber-space, so dealing with their attacks is a major priority for the National Cyber Security Centre and our US allies," said Ciaran Martin, head of the NCSC

    Ciaran seems to have forgotten the tens of thousands of US trained crackers in the PRC