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by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

A new cybersecurity emergency directive has just been issued by the U.S. Federal Government, through their Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), warning that thousands of networks operated by the US government and Fortune 500 companies face an “imminent threat” of being breached by a nation-state hacking group.

The CISA emergency directive can be read here.

This is being widely reported in the media today, mostly in the Tech sector, although it is not headline news as it should be.

From Ars Technica:

Thousands of customers imperiled after nation-state ransacks F5’s network

Thousands of networks—many of them operated by the US government and Fortune 500 companies—face an “imminent threat” of being breached by a nation-state hacking group following the breach of a major maker of software, the federal government warned Wednesday.

F5, a Seattle-based maker of networking software, disclosed the breach on Wednesday. F5 said a “sophisticated” threat group working for an undisclosed nation-state government had surreptitiously and persistently dwelled in its network over a “long-term.” Security researchers who have responded to similar intrusions in the past took the language to mean the hackers were inside the F5 network for years.

Unprecedented

During that time, F5 said, the hackers took control of the network segment the company uses to create and distribute updates for BIG IP, a line of server appliances that F5 says is used by 48 of the world’s top 50 corporations.

Wednesday’s disclosure went on to say the threat group downloaded proprietary BIG-IP source code information about vulnerabilities that had been privately discovered but not yet patched. The hackers also obtained configuration settings that some customers used inside their networks.

Customers position BIG-IP at the very edge of their networks for use as load balancers and firewalls, and for inspection and encryption of data passing into and out of networks. Given BIG-IP’s network position and its role in managing traffic for web servers, previous compromises have allowed adversaries to expand their access to other parts of an infected network.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency has warned that federal agencies that rely on the appliance face an “imminent threat” from the thefts, which “pose an unacceptable risk.” The agency went on to direct federal agencies under its control to take “emergency action.” The UK’s National Cyber Security Center issued a similar directive.

CISA has ordered all federal agencies it oversees to immediately take inventory of all BIG-IP devices in networks they run or in networks that outside providers run on their behalf. The agency went on to direct agencies to install the updates and follow a threat-hunting guide that F5 has also issued. BIG-IP users in private industry should do the same. (Source.)

Here is some more information from PCMag and their coverage of this threat.

‘Imminent Threat’: Nation-State Hackers Hit Cybersecurity Provider F5

F5 warns that a ‘highly sophisticated nation-state threat actor’ was able to maintain long-term access to the company’s systems, and steal data, including details about undisclosed flaws.

Yikes. Cybersecurity provider F5 is warning that state-sponsored hackers breached its systems and stole data, including details about undisclosed flaws for its products.

Seattle-based F5, which supplies application and cloud security, revealed this morning that it discovered the hackers inside its systems on Aug. 9. Although F5 has contained the breach, the hackers achieved “long-term, persistent access to certain F5 systems,” including BIG-IP, which is used to securely deliver app services on behalf of clients to users.

“Through this access, certain files were exfiltrated, some of which contained certain portions of the Company’s BIG-IP source code and information about undisclosed vulnerabilities that it was working on in BIG-IP,” the company said in an SEC filing.

The breach prompted US cyber officials to issue an emergency directive over fears the hackers would move quickly to exploit F5’s products and software. The Seattle company has said it supports:

“over 23,000 enterprise customers in more than 170 countries, including the largest banks, auto manufacturers, and telecommunications providers in the world.”

Full article.

Whether an attack on government and corporate networks is imminent or not, this is a REAL threat, and is not hyperbole. There are speculative reports that China is behind this, but China vehemently denies this.

Our current day use of technology where just a handful of American Big Tech companies control the flow of information through the Internet through their “cybersecurity” products, shows the extreme danger of consolidation in the tech sector, where the same “security” software products are used by most of the governments and corporations around the world, making them easy targets by well-funded hackers.

As the U.S. corporate media fixes their attention on potential “hot war” scenarios in places like Venezuela, Russia and Ukraine, and in Gaza and the rest of the Middle East, a major cyber attack like this could be far more catastrophic. A cyber attack that brings down the major networks needed to run this country and keep the lights on for everyone will be far more devastating and disastrous than bombs and bullets flying through the air.

Comment on this article at HealthImpactNews.com.

This article was written by Human Superior Intelligence (HSI)

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