WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2020) The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned in a joint advisory on Thursday that Russian hackers are trying to breach dozens of state and local government networks.
"This joint cybersecurity advisory - written by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) - provides information on Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actor activity targeting various US state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) government networks, as well as aviation networks," the advisory said.
To date, the FBI and CISA have no information to indicate this advanced persistent threat actor has intentionally disrupted any aviation, education, elections or government operations.
The advisory said the threat actor is known variously as Berserk Bear, Energetic Bear, TeamSpy, Dragonfly, Havex, Crouching Yeti and Koala. As of October 1, the advisory said, this ATP actor has exfiltrated data from at least two servers.
In a separate advisory, the CISA and FBI warned that Iranian advanced persistent threat actors are trying to undermine US voters' confidence in the electoral process by spreading disinformation about voter fraud and creating fictitious media sites to spread anti-American propaganda.
On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said that Iran and Russia have obtained US voter information, but emphasized that the American election systems are resilient.
Ratcliffe added that Iran has sent emails to intimidate US voters, incite social unrest and damage Trump in the presidential election, but that the US intelligence community has not seen Russia take similar actions.
