Dutch organizations warned about Russian hackers

The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) made sure all Dutch government organizations are aware of a warning issued by the American and British security services about Russian state hackers targeting network equipment. The NCSC, which falls under the Ministry of Justice and Security, takes this warning seriously and advises all Dutch organizations to check their network equipment for erroneous configurations, NU.nl reports.

On Monday the American and British intelligence services warned that hackers working on behalf of the Russian government are trying to break into digital infrastructure. According to the services, the hackers are infecting routers and firewalls, among other things, with malware in preparation to carry out a "massive attack, if necessary". Russia is targeting governments, companies and vital infrastructure, the U.S. and U.K. warned. 

According to the services, the Russian hackers infected equipment form the Cisco brand, among others. The NCSC is therefore calling on Dutch organizations to make sure they have the most recent patches of Cisco Smart Install installed. Cisco released an update earlier this month to fix a vulnerability. 

The NCSC calls it "conceivable" that hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities on routers and other network equipment, according to the newspaper.