- Security researchers from recorded future observe new salt typhoon activity
- The threat actor is still going after ISPs and universities in the West
- The group abuser is missing in Cisco Gear to hit new targets
Salt Typhoon, a Chinese state -sponsored threat actor, best known for recently violating almost a dozen telecom providers in the United States, has struck again and hit not only US organizations but also those from Britain, South Africa and other places around the world.
The latest intrusions were discovered by cybersecurity scientists from the recorded future who said the group is targeting internet-exposed web boundaries in Ciscos iOS software that drives various routers and switches. These devices have known vulnerabilities that threat actors actively exploit in order to gain initial access, root privileges and more.
More than 12,000 Cisco units were found connected to the wider internet and exposed to risk, registered future further explained. However, Salt Typhoon focuses on a “smaller subgroup” of telecommunications and university networks.
Latest activity
This “smaller subgroup” of targets includes US ISPs and telecommunications companies, an American affiliated with a British telecommunications, telecommunications in South Africa and Thailand, an ISP in Italy, various universities all over the world (Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Holland, Thailand , Vietnam and the United States).
All this activity was discovered between December 2024 and January 2025, which means the group is currently quite active.
“They are super active and they are still super active,” Levi Gundert, who leader, recorded Future’s research team known as Insikt Group, to Wired. “I think there is just a general under value for how aggressive they are about to transform telecommunications networks into Swiss cheese.”
Cisco also chimled in and said that the vulnerabilities Salt Typhoon utilizes everyone has been resolved, and encouraged users to use the available patches as soon as possible.
Unobsulent N-Day’s vulnerabilities are low-hanging fruit for cyber criminals as they already have a functioning exploitation and a proof-of-concept for malware infections, making their work relatively easy.
Via Cable