Iranian media is claiming that the US used backdoors and/or botnets to disable networking equipment during the current war, and Chinese state media is dining out on the allegations.
Reports from Iran claim hardware made by Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet, and MikroTik either rebooted or disconnected during recent attacks on Iran – despite the regime disconnecting the nation from the global internet. The reports suggest that’s only possible because someone – probably the US – can sabotage the equipment at will. The report linked to above hypothesizes that a hidden backdoor in firmware or bootloader allows remote attacks at a pre-determined time or can be activated by a signal from a satellite.
Read more…
Source: The Register News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Newly Discovered Iranian APT Group Brings State-sponsored Cyber Espionage into Focus
October 17, 2017
State-sponsored cyber espionage has been rising steadily in recent years. Whether it’s high-profile attacks such as North Korea’s hack of Sony in 2014, China’s alleged hack of the US’s Office of Personnel Management in 2015, or Russia’s alleged hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, the stories are mounting. Iran has also been in the cyber espionage news, with major ...
- Iran to blame for cyber-attack on MPs’ emails – British intelligence
October 14, 2017
Iran is being blamed for a cyber-attack in June on the email accounts of dozens of MPs, according to an unpublished assessment by British intelligence. Disclosure of the report, first revealed by the Times but independently verified by the Guardian, comes at an awkward juncture. Donald Trump made it clear on Friday that he wants to ...
- Security experts: Iran-backed hackers targeting U.S. and Saudi Arabia
September 21, 2017
Cybersecurity firm FireEye has identified a new group of hackers, known as APT33, that it says has been working on behalf of the Iranian government since 2013. The group has “potential destructive capabilities,” FireEye warned. “The campaigns that were laid out were not just aligned with the Iranian government but with the Iranian military,” said Stuart ...
- Experts Unveil Cyber Espionage Attacks by CopyKittens Hackers
July 25, 2017
Security researchers have discovered a new, massive cyber espionage campaign that mainly targets people working in government, defence and academic organisations in various countries. The campaign is being conducted by an Iran-linked threat group, whose activities, attack methods, and targets have been released in a joint, detailed report published by researchers at Trend Micro and Israeli ...