Hackers attacked Cisco switches at data centers in Russia and Iran, leaving an image of the U.S. flag and the message “don’t mess with our elections,” according to ZDNet.
The attacks exploited a ‘Smart Install’ protocol misuse issue that Cisco had previously issued an alert about. The company said it had seen a spike in scans for vulnerable Smart Client switches, and it said nation-state hackers were exploiting it to target critical infrastructure providers. Cisco also pointed to a recent advisory from US-CERT concerning attacks on critical infrastructure from Russian hacking group DragonFly.
According to Reuters, 3,500 switches in Iran were affected by the attack, and Iran’s ICT Minister MJ Azari Jahromi said in a tweet that over 95 percent had been restored by Saturday.
Read more at ZDNet
