Thu 30 January 2020:
Sophisticated hackers infiltrated UN offices in Geneva and Vienna last year in an apparent espionage operation, and their identity and the extent of the data they obtained is not clear.
An internal confidential document from the United Nations, leaked to The New Humanitarian and seen by the Associated Press, says dozens of servers were compromised including at the UN human rights office, which collects sensitive data and has often been a lightning rod of criticism from autocratic governments for exposing rights abuses.
Asked about the report, one UN official told the AP that the hack appeared “sophisticated” and that the extent of the damage remained unclear, especially in terms of personal, secret or compromising information that may have been stolen. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to speak freely about the episode, said systems have since been reinforced.
The skill level was so high it was possible a state-backed actor might have been behind it, the official said.
“It’s as if someone were walking in the sand, and swept up their tracks with a broom afterward,” the official said. “There’s not even a trace of a clean-up.”
There were conflicting accounts, however, about the severity of the incursion.
“We were hacked,” UN human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville. “We face daily attempts to get into our computer systems. This time, they managed, but it did not get very far. Nothing confidential was compromised.”
Colville’s statement appeared to contradict the leaked September report, however. It says logs that would have betrayed the hackers’ activities inside the UN networks — what was accessed and what may have been siphoned out — were “cleared.” It also shows that among accounts known to have been accessed were those of domain administrators — who by default have master access to all user accounts in their purview.
Jake Williams, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Rendition Infosec and a former US government hacker, said the fact that the hackers cleared the network logs indicates they were not top flight. The most skilled hackers – including US, Russian and Chinese agents —can cover their tracks by editing those logs instead of wiping them clean.
“The intrusion definitely looks like espionage,” said Williams, noting that the active directory component — where all users’ permissions are managed — from three different domains were compromised: those of United Nations offices in Geneva and Vienna and of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“This, coupled with the relatively small number of infected machines, is highly suggestive of espionage,” he said after viewing the report. “The attackers have a goal in mind and are deploying malware to machines that they believe serve some purpose for them.”
Any number of intelligence agencies from around the globe are likely interested in infiltrating the UN, said Williams.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the attack “resulted in a compromise of core infrastructure components” and was “determined to be serious.” The earliest detected activity related to the intrusion occurred in July and it was detected in August, he in response to emailed questions.
He said the world body does not have enough information to determine who might have been behind the incursion, but added “the methods and tools used in the attack indicate a high level of resource, capability and determination.
“The damage related to this specific attack has been contained, and additional mitigation measures implemented,” Dujarric wrote. “Nevertheless, the threat of future attacks continues, and the United Nations Secretariat detects and responds to multiple attacks of various level of sophistication on a daily basis.”
The internal document from the UN Office of Information and Technology said 42 servers were “compromised” and another 25 were deemed “suspicious,” nearly all at the sprawling Geneva and Vienna offices. Three of the “compromised” servers belonged to Human Rights agency, which is located across town from the main UN office in Geneva, and two were used by the UN Economic Commission for Europe.
The report says a flaw in Microsoft’s SharePoint software was exploited by the hackers to infiltrate the networks but that the type of malware used was not known nor had technicians identified the command and control servers on the internet used to exfiltrate information.
Security researcher Matt Suiche, a French entrepreneur based in Dubai who founded the cybersecurity firm Comae Technologies , reviewed the report and said it appeared entry was gained through an anti-corruption tracker at the UN Office of Drugs and Crime.
The report mentions a range of IP addresses in Romania that may have been used to stage the infiltration, and Williams said one has some neighbors with a history of hosting malware.
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