On Wednesday Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director, Christopher Wray announced that the FBI had disrupted a Cyclops Blink botnet attack by Russia.
AG Garland revealed that cybersecurity specialists were able to target the botnet which hit thousands of infected devices. The initial malware attack is being blamed on Sandworm; a Russian Military Intelligence linked hacking operation.
The NSA and CISA issued advisories and guidance on the malicious software in February. It targets vulnerable routers and firewall devices primarily from PC maker Asus and WatchGuard, the network security provider.
Cyclops Blink new botnet
The malware infection was identified on February 23rd through a search warrant. And the FBI notified owners of infected devices in the US. It also notified companies outside the country through local law enforcement partners.
Russia’s attempt to hijack the computers with Cyclops Blink botnets was most likely the precursor to a large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. A massive DDoS attack hit Ukraine a week before Russia invaded.
