Russian Military Spy Software is on Hundreds of Thousands of Home Routers

Russian President Vladimir Putin and presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, left, attend a meeting during the 5th Caspian summit in Aktau, the Caspian Sea port in Kazakhstan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. [Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo (Via AP)]

 

In May, the Justice Department told Americans to reboot their routers. But there’s more to do — and NSA says it’s up to device makers and the public.

LAS VEGAS — The Russian military is inside hundreds of thousands of routers owned by Americans and others around the world, a top U.S. cybersecurity official said on Friday. The presence of Russian malware on the routers, first revealed in May, could enable the Kremlin to steal individuals’ data or enlist their devices in a massive attack intended to disrupt global economic activity or target institutions.

On May 27, Justice Department officials asked Americans to reboot their routers to stop the attack. Afterwards, the world largely forgot about it. That’s a mistake, said Rob Joyce, senior advisor to the director of the National Security Agency and the former White House cybersecurity coordinator.

“The Russian malware is still there,” said Joyce.

Russian banks suffer wave of DDoS attacks

Kaspersky Lab has confirmed that numerous Russian banks have been suffering a wave of DDoS attacks.

According to Russian media, five banks in the country have been subject to a swathe of DDoS attacks over the past few days. The state-owned Sberbank was one of them, and Kaspersky Lab said in a statement that the attacks were among the largest it had seen aimed at Russian banks.

There are numerous theories flying around about why these attacks are happening, and it’s important to mention they are unsubstantiated rumours at best, but Vice has a theory that it may have been happening due to  “people who were dissatisfied with possible Russian intervention in the presidential elections in the United States.”