Hackers Achieve Widespread Penetration Of Defense Contractors

Suspected foreign hackers have breached 9 organisations in the defense, energy, health care, technology and education sectors, and at least one of those organisations is in the US, according to the security experts at Palo Alto Networks. The FBI, CISA, and US Coast Guard Cyber Command  (CGCYBER)  have reports of malicious cyber actors using hacking to gain access to several different organisations in the US and overseas.

With the help of the National Security Agency, Palo Alto Networks' researchers have exposed an ongoing effort by these unidentified hackers to steal key data from US defense contractors and other sensitive targets.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a warning that advanced persistent threat (APT) actors were actively exploiting newly identified vulnerabilities in a self-service password management and single sign-on solution known as ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus.  

Hackers were observed deploying a specific webshell and other techniques to maintain persistence in victim environments and also successful attacks against the same organisation was happening.

Officials from the NSA and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are tracking the threat. A division of the NSA responsible for mitigating foreign cyber threats to the US defense industrial base contributed analysis to the Palo Alto Networks report. Cyber security firm Mandiant / FireEye said earlier this year that Chinese hackers are exploiting different software vulnerabilities to break into defense, financial and public sector organisations in the US and Europe.

US defense contractors are a high value and frequent target for foreign hackers, although the NSA and CISA have so far declined to comment on the hackers's origin and identity.

CISA and the FBI has recently warned that hackers were exploiting the software flaw and urged organisations to update their systems. A few days later, the hackers tracked by Palo Alto Networks scanned 370 computer servers running the software in the US alone, and then began to exploit the software.

CERT-CISA:       CNN:      Palo Alto Networks:     Microsoft: 

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