U.S., UK warn of Russian internet scheme

Washington and London on Monday jointly accused the Russian government of maliciously targeting global internet equipment for political and economic espionage.

The two governments said the Russian operations, which allegedly involve planting malware on internet routers and other equipment, could also lay the foundation for future offensive cyberattacks.

A joint statement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre said the main targets include “government and private sector organizations,” as well as providers of “critical infrastructure” and internet service providers.

“Victims were identified through a coordinated series of actions between U.S. and international partners,” according to a companion technical alert issued by the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT). Both nations have “high confidence” in the finding of Russian-sponsored cyber-meddling, which the alert said has been reported by multiple sources since 2015.

Routers are devices that direct data traffic across the internet. US-CERT said the compromised routers can be exploited for “man-in-the-middle” spoofing attacks, in which communications are intercepted by a seemingly trusted device that has actually been infiltrated by an attacker.

“The current state of U.S. network devices — coupled with a Russian government campaign to exploit these devices — threatens the safety, security, and economic wellbeing of the United States,” the alert stated. An email message seeking comment from the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., received no response.