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... This is the latest tactic by the long-running Russian hacking group known as Fancy Bear, or APT 28, known for its high-profile hacks and spying operations, including the breach of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and the destructive hack that hit satellite provider Viasat in 2022. Fancy Bear is widely believed to be part of Russia's intelligence agency GRU.

The hacking group targeted unpatched routers made by MikroTik and TP-Link using previously disclosed vulnerabilities according to the U.K. government's cybersecurity unit NCSC and Lumen's research arm Black Lotus Labs, which released new details of the campaign Tuesday.

According to the researchers, the hackers were able to spy on large numbers of people over the course of several years by compromising their routers, many of which run outdated software, leaving them vulnerable to remote attacks without their owners' knowledge. ...