In the new joint advisory the National Cyber Security Centre – a part of GCHQ – alongside international partners highlight how recent activity has targeted networks across critical infrastructure sectors in the US and how the same techniques could be applied worldwide.

The actor has been observed taking advantage of built-in network administration tools on targets’ systems to evade detection after an initial compromise.

The advisory provides technical indicators of compromise and examples of techniques deployed by the actor to help network defenders identify the malicious activity.

Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, said: “It is vital that operators of critical national infrastructure take action to prevent attackers hiding on their systems, as described in this joint advisory with our international partners. We strongly encourage providers of UK essential services to follow our guidance to help detect this malicious activity and prevent persistent compromise.”

The advisory has been jointly issued by the NCSC, the US National Security Agency (NSA), the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Communications Security Establishment’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), and the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ).