Quote:Monday’s CISA advisory is a staunch reminder for federal government and private sector entities to apply patches for flaws in F5 BIG-IP devices, Citrix VPNs, Pulse Secure VPNs and Microsoft Exchange servers.
The U.S. government is warning that Chinese threat actors have successfully compromised several government and private sector entities in recent months, by exploiting vulnerabilities in F5 BIG-IP devices, Citrix and Pulse Secure VPNs and Microsoft Exchange servers.
Patches are currently available for all these flaws – and in some cases, have been available for over a year – however, the targeted organizations had not yet updated their systems, leaving them vulnerable to compromise, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a Monday advisory. CISA claims the attacks were launched by threat actors affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
“CISA and the FBI also recommend that organizations routinely audit their configuration and patch management programs to ensure they can track and mitigate emerging threats,” according to a Monday CISA advisory. “Implementing a rigorous configuration and patch management program will hamper sophisticated cyber threat actors’ operations and protect organizations’ resources and information systems.”
No further details on the specific hacked entities were made public. The threat actors have been spotted successfully exploiting two common vulnerabilities – allowing them to compromise federal government and commercial entities, according to CISA.
Read more: https://threatpost.com/hackers-gov-micro...ts/159226/