San Francisco, April 17: Cyber security representatives from the US and Britain have warned of Russian state-sponsored cyber-attacks that are targeting network infrastructure devices such as routers and firewalls, to compromise government and private sectors globally.
According to a US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), the Technical Alert (TA) provided information on the worldwide cyber exploitation of network infrastructure devices (routers, switches, firewalls, Network-based Intrusion Detection Systems) by Russian state-sponsored cyber actors.
The joint TA is the result of analytic efforts between the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, according to information on the official website of the DHS.
"Victims were identified through a coordinated series of actions between US and international partners. The report builds on previous DHS reporting and advisories from the UK, Australia and the European Union," the website said.
"The FBI has high confidence that Russian state-sponsored cyber actors are using compromised routers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to support espionage, extract intellectual property, maintain persistent access to victim networks, and potentially lay a foundation for future offensive operations," the website added.
Since 2015, the US government has been receiving information from multiple sources -- including private and public sector cyber security research organisations and allies -- that cyber actors were exploiting large numbers of enterprise-class and residential routers and switches worldwide.
The US government assessed that cyber actors supported by the Russian government carried out this worldwide campaign.
These operations enable espionage and intellectual property that supports the Russian Federation's national security and economic goals, the website said.
Russian cyber actors leverage a number of legacy or weak protocols and service ports associated with network administration activities.
Cyber actors use these weaknesses to identify vulnerable devices, extract device configurations, harvest login credentials, modify device firmware, and copy or redirect victim traffic through Russian cyber-actor-controlled infrastructure.
Organisations can use publicly available cyber security guidance and best practices from DHS, allied governments, vendors and the private-sector cyber security community on mitigation strategies for the exploitation vectors to safeguard their networks.
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I-T Department sends notice to actor-director Prithviraj Sukumaran over co-produced films
New Delhi: The Income Tax (I-T) Department has sent a notice to actor and director Prithviraj Sukumaran asking for more details about the money he earned from some films he co-produced. The notice was reportedly served during the last week of March by the I-T office in Kochi. He has been asked to respond by the end of April.
The department is seeking clarification on the income from a few movies Prithviraj was involved in as a co-producer. This comes at a time when the actor has been receiving criticism from right-wing groups over what seemed to be references to the 2002 Gujarat riots in his latest film L2: Empuraan, starring Mohanlal, which released on March 27.
On April 4, 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at the offices of Gokulam Gopalan, a Kerala-based businessman and one of the producers of L2: Empuraan, along with a few others. These searches were part of an investigation into alleged violations of foreign exchange rules.
The I-T notice to Prithviraj is believed to be linked to an ongoing investigation that began in December 2022 into suspected tax evasion within the Malayalam film industry.
At the time, tax officials had raided the homes and offices of several producers, including Antony Perumbavoor, Anto Joseph, and Listin Stephen, over concerns about unreported income, cash deals, and overseas investments. Prithviraj’s premises were also searched during that operation.
