Five Eyes look East

20th September 2024

The UK and its Five Eyes allies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US) have issued a cyber attack warning over a China-backed "botnet" of more than 260,000 compromised devices. Botnets are large networks of internet-connected devices that have been infected with malware. As a result, they can be controlled and used to carry out malicious attacks without the owners' knowledge.

The compromised devices include routers, firewalls, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices – including webcams and CCTV cameras – which can then be used by the actors for a variety of malicious purposes, such as anonymous malware delivery and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

The advisory names Integrity Technology Group as responsible for controlling and managing the botnet, which has been active since mid-2021, and has been utilised by the malicious cyber actor commonly known as Flax Typhoon.

The advisory shares technical details and mitigation advice to help defend against malicious activity delivered through this botnet. It also highlights the risk to owners of how unpatched and end-of-life equipment can be exploited by malicious cyber actors.

The reality, however, is that businesses need professional protection, in the form of specialist cyber security services. No business would consider operating without professional indemnity or employers liability insurance, and cyber protection services is, unfortunately, another form of insurance that is now becoming equally essential.

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