TENSIONS between Russia and the West have spilled into cyberspace. The UK and US issued a joint statement this week saying that Russia is trying to hijack computers and networking hardware for espionage purposes, potentially to improve its ability to mount a cyberattack.
Millions of machines directing data around the internet are being probed, said White House cybersecurity coordinator Rob Joyce in a press conference. The main targets are internet service providers, firms running critical infrastructure, government departments and large companies. Joyce said the US had “high confidence” that Russia was behind the campaign.
The approach involves finding easily compromised equipment, such as routers without passwords, and maintaining an invisible presence on it. This can allow someone to monitor internet traffic passing through the equipment, sometimes including credentials and passwords.
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This article appeared in print under the headline “Russia hacking threat raised”
