Russia-Sponsored Cyber Attack Campaign Targets Networking Devices, Critical Infrastructure

Russia-sponsored group Static Tundra (also known as Energetic Bear or Berserk Bear) is exploiting the seven-year-old CVE-2018-0171 flaw to target end-of-life Cisco devices that remain unpatched. The vulnerability enables arbitrary code execution or denial-of-service conditions and was previously exploited by Salt Typhoon. Static Tundra has operated since 2015 and predominantly targets telecommunications, manufacturing, and higher education organizations in the United States, Ukraine, and other countries. Security leaders emphasize disciplined lifecycle and vulnerability management and advocate enterprise-capable automation to continuously assess device posture, automate patch deployment, enforce lifecycle policies, and phase out unsupported infrastructure.

The Static Tundra campaign highlights a simple truth: the most effective defense against state-sponsored exploitation of aging, unpatched devices is not a single patch or product - it's disciplined lifecycle and vulnerability management. Organizations that continue to run end-of-life infrastructure are leaving doors open that sophisticated adversaries are eager to walk through. Automation is the key to closing those doors at scale.

Enterprise capable automation enables IT teams to continuously assess device posture, automate patch deployment, and enforce lifecycle policies across complex, multi-vendor networks. Instead of waiting for the next CVE to make headlines, automated lifecycle management ensures that unsupported devices are flagged and phased out before they become liabilities, and vulnerabilities are remediated as part of a repeatable, policy-driven process. For CIOs, the takeaway is clear:

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