Australian companies and organisations using Fortinet services have been urged to brace for a round of denial of service and phishing attacks – or possibly ransomware demands.
Fortinet’s products are widely used in Australia and promoted as some of the highest-ranked security appliances in the world, providing intelligent security solutions for computer applications, mobile devices, and cloud computing.
According to data marketing outfit Enlyft, more than 340 Australian companies currently use Fortinet products. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has warned of an advanced persistent threat from unnamed actors, said to be scanning for vulnerabilities to gain access to multiple government, commercial, and technology services networks.
The ACSC says APT actors, as they’re known, exploit vulnerabilities and carry out various attacks to inflict denial-of-service, inject ransomware, spear-phishing campaigns, website hacks, and disinformation campaigns.
The ACSC says it was alerted to the attacks by US authorities including the FBI.
The FBI said the APT actors are probably exploiting Fortinet vulnerabilities CVE 2018-13379, CVE-2020-12812, and CVE-2019-5591to gain access to multiple government, commercial, and technology services networks.
While it doesn’t identify the actors, the term is usually used to refer to either Chinese or Russian hackers.
It’s the second major warning from the ACSC in the last three months, following the exploitation of vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Exchange Server e-mail system.
Fortinet’s products are widely used in Australia and across the world, providing intelligent security for computer apps, mobile devices and cloud computing.
