China is behind a newly discovered series of hacks against key targets in the U.S. government, private companies and the country’s critical infrastructure, cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Wednesday.
The hack works by breaking into Pulse Secure, a program that businesses often use to let workers remotely connect to their offices. The company announced Tuesday how users can check to see if they were affected but said the software update to prevent the risk to users won’t go out until May.
The campaign is the third distinct and severe cyberespionage operation against the U.S. made public in recent months, stressing an already strained cybersecurity workforce. The U.S. government accused Russia in January of hacking nine government agencies via SolarWinds, a Texas software company widely used by American businesses and government agencies. In March, Microsoft blamed China for starting a free-for-all where scores of different hackers broke into organizations around the world through the Microsoft Exchange email program.
In all three campaigns, the hackers first used those programs to hack into victims’ computer networks, then created backdoors to spy on them for months, if not longer.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, said in a warning Tuesday evening the latest hacking campaign is currently “affecting U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and other private sector organizations.”
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Source: China behind another hack as U.S. cybersecurity issues mount
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