Washington: Chinese government-backed hackers have breached major telecommunications companies, among a range of targets worldwide by exploiting known software flaws in routers, CNN quoted US security agencies as saying.
"These devices are overlooked by cyber defenders quite often, who struggle to maintain and keep pace with routine software patching of Internet-facing services and endpoint devices, says the advisory from the FBI, the National Security Agency and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The PRC has waged a successful cyber campaign against telecommunications networks since at least 2020, the federal agencies announced in a Tuesday press release. However, the Chinese government routinely denied hacking allegations, responding to which FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said that China conducts more cyber intrusions than all other nations in the world combined alleging the communist nation in a speech in April.
The agencies' statement did not identify the victims of the hacking; the advisory was aimed at defensive measures to help organizations running the devices made by Cisco, Fortinet and other vendors, shore up their networks.
"To kick [the Chinese hackers] out, we must understand the tradecraft and detect them beyond just initial access," tweeted Rob Joyce, an official who has spent decades at the NSA and who is well respected in the cybersecurity community.
US cybersecurity officials are on a continuous exercise to blunt the impact of foreign operatives' efforts to infiltrate key computer networks and harvest data for spying or other purposes as the attackers are using vulnerabilities in software that are already known, CNN reported.
President Joe Biden raised the critical issue on a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September. US officials were particularly vexed by an alleged Chinese hacking campaign last year that exposed vulnerabilities in thousands of organizations around the world running popular Microsoft software. Beijing denied the allegations while analysts say US efforts to confront China about its alleged cyber campaigns are more complicated than doing so with Russia, due to the intertwined economies of the US and China. —ANI