Cisco router break-ins bypass cyber defenses

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Security researchers say they have uncovered clandestine attacks across three continents on the routers that direct traffic around the Internet, potentially allowing suspected cyberspies to harvest vast amounts of data while going undetected.

In the attacks, a highly sophisticated form of malicious software, dubbed SYNful Knock, has been implanted in routers made by Cisco (CSCO.O), the world's top supplier, U.S. security research firm FireEye (FEYE.O) said on Tuesday.

Routers are attractive to hackers because they operate outside the perimeter of firewalls, anti-virus, behavioral detection software and other security tools that organizations use to safeguard data traffic. Until now, they were considered vulnerable to sustained denial-of-service attacks using barrages of millions of packets of data, but not outright takeover.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/15/us-cybersecurity-routers-cisco-systems-idUSKCN0RF0N420150915

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