Juniper VPN-code falls victim to cyber espionage

Late last week, Juniper Networks announced that an internal review had uncovered 'unauthorised' code that had been inserted into key ScreenOS VPN-communication software, which enabled the miscreant to monitor the content of VPN traffic. The company has discovered two distinct corruptions of its code: the first allowed "unauthorized remote administrative access" which could lead to the complete compromise of a targeted system, while the second enabled VPN traffic to be decrypted and monitored. Juniper believes that the two sets of code are unrelated, however their conjunction would mean that a party with knowledge of both of the illicit back-doors would essentially have full and open access to a target's VPN traffic. It is likely that the rogue code was added in late 2013, and experts emphasise that detection is impossible, as the attackers would have had full access rights and hence the ability to erase all tracks. The FBI is investigating what appears to be a clear case of cyber-espionage, and the key question has to be how many other internet security products have undiscovered rogue code lurking within them?

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