Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) warned on Wednesday that hackers had infected at least 500.000 routers and storage devices in dozens of countries with highly sophisticated malware, possibly in preparation for another massive cyber attack in Ukraine.
The Talis cyber-intelligence unit said it was quite certain that the Russian government was behind the attack, dubbed VPNFilter, as the software operated with a code used in previous cyber-attacks that the US government has attributed to Moscow.
Cisco said the malware could be used for espionage, interfering with Internet communications or carrying out devastating attacks in Ukraine, which has accused Russia of massive attacks.