Russian hackers are exploiting commonly sold internet routers to harvest information for espionage purposes, the UK\u2019s cybersecurity agency has said.<\/p>\n
The hack could allow attackers to obtain users\u2019 credentials, redirect them to fake sites, and potentially access other devices on their home network such as phones and PCs, said Alan Woodward, a professor at the University of Surrey.<\/p>\n
The National Cyber Security Centre said on Tuesday<\/a> the operations were \u201cbelieved to be opportunistic in nature, with the actor targeting a wide pool of victims and then likely filtering down for users of potential intelligence value at each stage of the exploitation chain\u201d.<\/p>\n It follows a common pattern of cyber-actors targeting edge devices \u2013 hardware such as internet routers or internet-connected security cameras \u2013 that act as a bridge between users and the cloud.<\/p>\n Woodward said: \u201cIt\u2019s not the first time that warnings have come out about routers. The main thing to say is that these so-called edge devices are quite often forgotten about, and they can become a weak point.\u201d<\/p>\n If attackers successfully attacked a router, he said, they could \u201ctake you to fake sites. You might think you\u2019re going to your bank, but they take you somewhere else.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can establish themselves on your network, move around your network, and see if the devices on your network \u2013 your PC, your phone \u2013 have any vulnerabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n The group behind the attacks was probably APT28 or Fancy Bear, wrote the NCSC, which was \u201calmost certainly\u201d linked to Russian intelligence services.<\/p>\n APT28 was also behind cyber-attacks on the German parliament in 2015<\/a>, in which large amounts of data were stolen, including confidential emails and the schedules of German MPs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t tend to know a lot about them. The suspicion is they\u2019re working on behalf of the Russian state, but no one knows for definite, because often nation-state attacks are done through criminal groups,\u201d said Woodward.<\/p>\n