LONDON \u2014 Network technology company Cisco Systems said Wednesday that a half a million routers had been compromised in preparation for what could be a major cyberattack against Ukraine, raising the specter of large-scale disruption timed to the upcoming Champions League soccer final there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement leaves federal cybersecurity officials in the United States scrambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s Cyberpolice said in a statement that it was possible the hackers planned to strike during \u201clarge-scale events,\u201d an apparent reference either to the match between Real Madrid and Liverpool in the capital, Kiev, on Saturday or to the country\u2019s upcoming Constitution Day celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What precisely was in the works remains unclear \u2014Cisco said it published its findings early \u2014 but researchers said that at least 500,000 devices had been hijacked by malicious software they dubbed VPNFilter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe damage possible with that many infected machines is hard to precisely quantify,\u201d said Craig Williams, the director of outreach for Talos, Cisco\u2019s digital threat intelligence unit. \u201cSuffice to say it could be a significant threat to users around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine has been locked in a years-long struggle with Russia-backed separatists in the country\u2019s east and has repeatedly been hit by cyberattacks of escalating severity. Last year witnessed the eruption of the NotPetya worm, which crippled critical systems, including hospitals , across the country and dealt hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral damage around the globe. Ukraine, the United States and Britain have blamed the attack on Moscow \u2014 a charge the Kremlin has denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe news out today from Cisco about a massive breach of routers and storage devices \u2013 including notable infections in Ukraine \u2013 shows that hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are targeting global critical infrastructure and government systems,\u201d George Kamis, chief technology officer for government markets for Forcepoint, said in an email to Fifth Domain. \u201cMany of our nation\u2019s mission-critical systems face a significant risk exposure as the threat landscape has changed and expanded, and this attack serves as one more reminder of the fragility of the systems at the core of our global and economic security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dThe need for a strong identity tie-in and multi-factor authentication for access is the baseline. As agencies evolve their security strategies, it becomes even more important to understand the behavior of the adversary in the operational portion of the network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suspicion will almost certainly fall on the Kremlin for the latest hack, especially after Talos flagged overlaps between VPNFilter and BlackEnergy \u2014 a destructive form of malware which has also been linked to Russian actors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Williams said in an email that complete attribution was extremely difficult to determine, \u201cespecially in situations like this where false flags can be intentionally planted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, he said, \u201cwe have a high degree of confidence that the actor behind this is acting against the Ukraine\u2019s best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frank Bajak reported from Boston.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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