Wikileaks which exposed CIA documents referred to as “Vault 7” in March this year is glad to know that networking giant Cisco has patched a critical flaw in its IOS software that exposed more than 300 models of routers and switches to cyber attacks.
Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks made a media briefing yesterday and said that he was happy that companies were reacting to his company whistleblowing act by patching their device vulnerabilities.
On March 17th, 2017, Cisco discovered through media reports that 100s of its devices were vulnerable to hackers via security flaw stemming from its IOS software. The flaw was actually allowing attackers to remotely execute malicious code and take control of affected devices.
The vulnerable models include Cisco’s Catalyst models such as 2960, 3560 and 3750 series along with Cisco’s IE 2000 and 4000 Industrial Ethernet Switching series.
When the media buzzed with reports about the flaw, Cisco issued a statement that it is working on the patches. In April this year, the California-based networking giant issued a press statement saying that disabling of the Telnet protocol for incoming connections can help eliminate the vulnerability.
On an immediate note, Cisco released software updates that addressed the vulnerability, urging customers to install the fixed version of the IOS and has now disclosed that the patch has reached 95% of the vulnerable customers, thus, securing them from cyber attacks.
Note 1- In its latest filing of the second fiscal quarter, Cisco reported a 14% growth in security year over year to $528 million. And this was Cisco’s 5th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in security.
Note 2- Wikileaks is a non-profit organization that publicizes secret info from anonymous sources. Its website is owned by Sunshine Press of Iceland which claims to have a database of 10 millions documents.
