Tech
Iran worse hit as hackers attack networks in a number of countries
Hackers have attacked networks in a number of countries including data centres in Iran, where they left the image of a US flag on screens along with a warning: “Don’t mess with our elections”, the Iranian IT ministry said on Saturday.
“The attack apparently affected 200,000 router switches across the world in a widespread attack, including 3,500 switches in our country,” the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said in a statement carried by Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
Read also: Facebook plans crackdown on ad targeting without consent
The statement said the attack, which hit internet service providers and cut off web access for subscribers, was made possible by a vulnerability in routers from Cisco, which had earlier issued a warning and provided a patch that some firms had failed to install over the Iranian New Year holiday.
A blog published on Thursday by Nick Biasini, a threat researcher at Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group, said: “Several incidents in multiple countries, including some specifically targeting critical infrastructure, have involved the misuse of the Smart Install protocol.
As a result, we are taking an active stance, and are urging customers, again, of the elevated risk and available remediation paths.”
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