APT actors exploiting Fortinet vulnerabilities to gain access to local governments

A web server hosting the domain for a local government in the United States was recently breached by advanced hackers taking advantage of old vulnerabilities in firewalls sold by Fortinet, according to an FBI Flash Alert issued. After gaining access to the local government organization's server, the advanced persistent threat (APT) actors moved laterally through the network and created new domain controller, server, and workstation user accounts mimicking already existing ones.

Access gained by the APT actors can be leveraged to conduct data exfiltration, data encryption, or other malicious activity. The APT actors are actively targeting a broad range of victims across multiple sectors, indicating the activity is focused on exploiting vulnerabilities rather than targeted at specific sectors, says the FBI.