Infrastructure Laundering: Blending in with the Cloud
1 min read
Summary
Researchers have found that criminal groups in China and Russia are increasingly using major US cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure to conceal malicious online activities.
The operators of one such network, which has been named Funnull and is linked to Chinese organised crime gangs, were found to have used AWS and Azure to host fake trading apps, pig-butchering scams, gambling websites, and retail phishing pages.
Funnull is a good example of a trend known as infrastructure laundering, says Zach Edwards of security firm Silent Push, wherein criminals use major Western cloud providers to relay some or all of their malicious traffic.
To counter this trend, cloud providers need to ensure they know who is renting their IP space and for what purpose, says Edwards.
All entities in the US have a vested interest and the right to ensure that our critical infrastructure partners are held to account.
The US Government can and should legislate and/or incentivise changes in the practices of our critical infrastructure partners, with fines and inhibitory regulation.
It’s worth doing, as the alternative is a slow-motion train wreck that will affect us all, probably sooner rather than later.