Britons warned about Russian hackers targeting internet routers for espionage
Russian hackers are exploiting commonly sold internet routers to harvest information for espionage purposes, the UK’s cybersecurity agency has said.The hack could allow attackers to obtain users’ credentials, redirect them to fake sites, and potentially access other devices on their home network such as phones and PCs, said Alan Woodward, a professor at the University of Surrey.The National Cyber Security Centre said on Tuesday the operations were “believed to be opportunistic in nature, with the actor targeting a wide pool of victims and then likely filtering down for users of potential intelligence value at each stage of the exploitation chain”.It follows a common pattern of cyber-actors targeting edge devices – hardware such as internet routers or internet-connected security cameras – that act as a bridge between users and the cloud.Woodward said: “It’s not the first time that warnings have come out about routers.
The main thing to say is that these so-called edge devices are quite often forgotten about, and they can become a weak point,”If attackers successfully attacked a router, he said, they could “take you to fake sites,You might think you’re going to your bank, but they take you somewhere else,“They can establish themselves on your network, move around your network, and see if the devices on your network – your PC, your phone – have any vulnerabilities,”The group behind the attacks was probably APT28 or Fancy Bear, wrote the NCSC, which was “almost certainly” linked to Russian intelligence services.
APT28 was also behind cyber-attacks on the German parliament in 2015, in which large amounts of data were stolen, including confidential emails and the schedules of German MPs,“We don’t tend to know a lot about them,The suspicion is they’re working on behalf of the Russian state, but no one knows for definite, because often nation-state attacks are done through criminal groups,” said Woodward,The US has recently banned the sale of all consumer-grade internet routers made outside of the country, with the Federal Communications Commission saying they “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States”,“Malicious actors have exploited security gaps in foreign-made routers to attack American households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft,” it said, saying that foreign-made routers had been involved in several recent cyberattacks targeting US infrastructure.
As almost all internet routers are made in China or Taiwan, this stands to severely affect a number of US hardware makers.An exception to this is Elon Musk’s Starlink, which manufactures a large part of its devices in Texas.Privacy experts have said this outright ban will not fully address vulnerabilities in existing internet routers, and that a more significant problem may be that internet routers currently in use are at the end of their lives and no longer receiving security updates.Woodward said the NCSC’s warning was an indication that small businesses and individuals should keep their routers updated.“If you’re a small business, you should look out for unusual activities on your network.
A lot of routers are just forgotten about.”One of the largest cyberattacks in history, in which hackers stole $80m from Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016, happened because the bank used cheap, secondhand internet routers that were accessible from the broader internet.Hackers were able to access the router, then the core network of the central bank, from there transferring its cash to accounts in the Philippines.It is believed that a state-linked North Korean hacking group was behind the attack.Woodward said: “It’s the classic way that people probe, and it’s almost bound to happen again.
”
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for hazelnut and chocolate cake | A kitchen in Rome
Having been kept waiting for three hours, Dick Dewy leaves Miss Fancy Day snipping and sewing her blue dress. The plan is that he will return for her a quarter of an hour later, however, Dick convinces himself that he has been scandalously trifled with by Fancy and decides that, to punish her, he will not return. Instead, he leaps over the gate, pushes up the lane for two miles, takes a winding path called Snail-Creep, and crawls through the opening to the hazel grove in Grey’s Wood.Getting a class of 15-year-olds to relay/read the opening of chapter four of Under the Greenwood Tree, which is memorably entitled “Going Nutting”, is an extremely effective way to engage them with the majesty of Thomas Hardy. And the title is nothing compared to the line (as Dick vanished among the bushes): “Never man nutted as Dick nutted that afternoon
How to make cauliflower cheese using the whole plant – recipe | Waste not
This recipe, adapted from one in my cookbook, is a very elaborate way to serve humble cauliflower cheese. The whole plant, including the leaves and core, is seasoned with nutmeg and roasted, and it’s then dressed with a satisfying layer of rich cheese sauce and grilled until charred and bubbling. Choose a cauliflower with plenty of leaves, because they go deliciously crisp when roasted.This is perhaps the most decadent cauliflower cheese I’ve ever made. Inspired by an orange-coloured cauliflower I found sitting proudly in a box at my local Brockley Market in south London, I decided to make a vibrant and very orange cauliflower cheese using red leicester cheese and turmeric
A marmalade-dropper for Paddington Bear? | Letters
As a Portuguese-British citizen, I feel it is my duty to add to your explainer article (Keir Starmalade, anyone? Will marmalade really have to be rebranded in UK?, 4 April) and explain where the word marmalade originated from. Marmalade comes from the fruit marmelo (quince). And marmalade was and is quince jam in Portugal. This jam began to be exported to England at the end of the 15th century. Only in the 17th century did the English start to apply the word marmalade to orange jam
How to save limp herbs | Kitchen aide
What can I do with herbs that are past their best?Joe, by email Happily, Joe and his on-the-turn herbs aren’t short of options. “The obvious choice for hard herbs is to chuck them in a sandwich bag and freeze them for future stock-making,” says Alice Norman, founder of regenerative bakery Pinch in Suffolk. Alternatively, Sami Tamimi, author of Boustany, would be inclined to dry his excess herbs. In summer, he’d simply pop them on a tray and put them outside in the sun, but right now he “dries them in a 60-70C oven, then packs in containers, ready for the next time you’re short of fresh herbs”.Norman’s current MO is to blitz languishing herbs (“rosemary and/or thyme work best”) with a 3:4 ratio of fine salt
‘Before I can stop her, my daughter is licking crumbs from the table’: my search for the perfect kids’ menu
Chips, fish fingers, pizza … restaurant food for children is depressingly predictable. Are there more adventurous options? I took my four-year-old daughter on a month-long mission to find outWe’re heading out for dinner. Before I tell my four-year-old where we’re going, she has already announced that she’s going to have fish, chips and lots of ketchup. It sounds delicious; a classic. But there’s the irksome feeling that the intrepid impulses of childhood should be met with food that expands palates rather than feeding into the well-trodden path to a beige meal
Can’t face another mouthful of chicken? You’re probably coming down with the ick
Name: The chicken ick.Age: Chickens have been around since, well, eggs …Unless it’s the other way round. Whatever. The chicken ick, on the other hand, is new.And what is it, please? You know when you suddenly feel disgusted by the chicken you’re eating, possibly mid-bite, despite previously enjoying it?Er, not really, to be honest
‘For the first time I’m the hunter’: Fury relishes return to face Makhmudov
Andy Sutch obituary
Elliott targets Grand National with five runners after first-day Aintree double
Noa-Lynn van Leuven banned from women-only darts events after transgender ruling
England absences mount for Six Nations opener after pregnancies and injuries
Gout and Kennedy renew rivalry, Hull eyes history as Australian athletics puts its best on show