Chinese-sponsored hackers, APT41, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted cyber criminals list, broke into at least 6 computer systems of US state governments.
Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm recently acquired by Google, published a 17-minute-read article on 8 March 2022 about a Chinese state-sponsored group known as APT41. The report claims that the group succeeded in compromising ‘at least six US state government networks.’
APT41 took advantage of vulnerable Internet facing web applications like a zero-day vulnerability in the USAHerds application (CVE-2021-44207) and the zero-day in Log4j (CVE-2021-44228).
Mandiant reported that its team had monitored the hacking group’s activities between May 2021 and February 2022. It was able to contain some of the hacking quickly but discovered that the hackers adapted quickly, changing tactics and methods of approach often.
In addition, APT41 commonly used ‘publicly disclosed vulnerabilities’ to target government networks. For example, after barely a few hours after the Apache Foundation released an advisory report for a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the logging framework Log4J, the group used the vulnerability to break into two US state governments.
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If you are to learn anything from this, it is the importance of being updated on what is happening in the cybersecurity space. Also, once a security vulnerability is announced, you should find a way to fix it if it affects you. However, most personal users need not worry about these risks because their providers fix known vulnerabilities in scheduled monthly updates. You can play your part by updating your devices once a new update rolls out.
Although, the goal of the Chinese hackers, APT41, is not yet clear regarding its targeting US state governments. Yet, the group’s reputation for espionage and financial gain makes it a dangerous adversary.
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