In a word, massive Hacks Linked to Russia, China Exploited U.S. Internet Security Gap. Protecting U.S. networks from cyberattacks launched domestically emerges as an intelligence blind spot, security experts say.
U.S. lawmakers and security experts are voicing concern that foreign governments are staging cyber-attacks using servers in the U.S. By and large in an apparent effort to avoid detection by America’s principal cyber-intelligence organization, the National Security Agency.
The big hack exposed in U.S.
By the report, China behind another hack as U.S. cybersecurity issues mount.
China is behind a newly discovered series of hacks against key targets in the U.S. government, private companies, and the country’s critical infrastructure, cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Wednesday.
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The hack works by breaking into Pulse Secure. As a matter of fact, a program that businesses often use to let workers remotely connect to their offices. The company announced Tuesday how users could check to see if they were affected. However, said the software update to prevent the risk to users wouldn’t go out until May.
“In recent months, we have issued them with increasing frequency. Which is certainly a concern and something we don’t take lightly,” said Matt Hartman. He is the agency’s deputy executive assistant director of cybersecurity.
“We at CISA are very concerned,” he said.
CISA activated its strictest emergency powers Tuesday evening, mandating that every civilian government agency scan to see if they were affected by the hack and to take actions to fix it.
Though it’s historically rare for it to do so, it’s the second time the agency has issued an emergency directive after the Exchange hack in seven weeks.
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China’s involvement in these big hack is super suspicious.
The campaign is the third distinct and severe cyberespionage operation against the U.S. made public in recent months. Moreover, stressing an already strained cybersecurity workforce. The U.S. government accused Russia in January of hacking nine government agencies via SolarWinds.
A Texas software company widely used by American businesses and government agencies. Above all, In March, Microsoft blamed China for starting a free-for-all. Secondly, They added scores of different hackers broke into organizations worldwide through the Microsoft Exchange email program.
In all three campaigns, the hackers first used those programs to hack into victims’ computer networks, then created backdoors to spy on them for months, if not longer.
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Above all, The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, said in a warning Tuesday evening the latest hacking campaign is currently “affecting U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and other private sector organizations.”
Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technology officer, gives various statements regarding these issues.
“We’re starting to see a resurgence of espionage activity from the Chinese government,” he said.
None of the victims have yet been made public, though that will likely change, Carmakal said.
“In the coming weeks and months, we’re going to have a better sense of how big of a deal this is from a national security perspective,” he said.
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The Bottom Line
“These are not complex, but clever social engineering is getting them through,” said Jen Miller-Osborn, the deputy director of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity company. Because Nigerian hackers are less skilled, they lack the so-called “op sec,” or operational security, to cover their tracks.
In conclusion, Even Nigerian cyber-criminals are getting in on the game: They recently started targeting businesses with coronavirus-themed email attacks to try to convince targets to wire them money, or to steal personal data that could fetch money on the dark web.
