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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SC says no to plea against selection of Delhi Waqf Board administrator
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday refused to examine a plea against the appointment of Delhi government’s Principal Secretary (Home) Ashwani Kumar as the Delhi Waqf Board administrator on January 10.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal asked the petitioner to move the Delhi High Court.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by one Zameer Ahmad Jumlana seeking directions to restrain and prohibit Kumar from discharging functions as the administrator of the Delhi Waqf Board and to vacate the office with immediate effect.
Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena, who approved Kumar's appointment, also okayed the appointment of IAS officer Azimul Haque as Delhi Waqf Board's CEO on January 3.
The petition alleged the term of the Delhi State Waqf Board expired on August 26, 2023, and since then no board was constituted.
The plea contended in the absence of the board, its powers were taken over by the LG by appointing Kumar purportedly using the powers under Section 99 of the Waqf Act, 1995.
"When the tenure of the board has lapsed on August 26, 2023, there is no question of exercise of any power of the state government under Section 99 of the Waqf Act 1995 to take over the board. Thus, the respondent number 1 is an usurper of the power of the Delhi State Waqf Board,” it said.
According to the petition, Kumar was not eligible under the Waqf Act of 1995 and took advantage of the fact that the Delhi Waqf Board was in an indefinite abeyance due to the negligence of the respondents.
On May 28, the Delhi High Court dismissed a similar plea filed by one Yasmin Ali and imposed Rs 10,000 costs.
The high court said the plea was publicity-oriented and an abuse of the process of law as it did not give any valid reasons for quashing the appointment of the city government officer as the administrator of the board.
