F5, a company that specializes in application security and delivery technology, disclosed Wednesday that it had been the target of what it’s calling a “highly sophisticated” cyberattack, which it attributes to a nation-state actor. The announcement follows authorization from the U.S. Department of Justice, which allowed F5 to delay public disclosure of the breach under Item 1.05(c) of Form 8-K due to ongoing law enforcement considerations.
According to an 8-K form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company first became aware of unauthorized access Aug. 9 and initiated standard incident response measures, including enlisting external cybersecurity consultants. In September, the Department of Justice permitted F5 to withhold public disclosure of the breach, which the government allows if a breach is determined to be a “a substantial risk to national security or public safety.”
Investigators discovered that the threat actor maintained prolonged access to parts of F5’s infrastructure. Systems affected included the BIG-IP product development environment and the company’s engineering knowledge management platform. The unauthorized access resulted in the exfiltration of files, some of which contained segments of BIG-IP source code and details regarding vulnerabilities that the company was actively addressing at the time. It also said the files taken were “configuration or implementation information for a small percentage of customers.”
F5 reported that independent reviews by incident response firms found no evidence the attacker had modified the software supply chain, including source code or build and release pipelines. The company stated that it is not aware of any undisclosed critical or remote code execution vulnerabilities, nor any current exploitation linked to the breach. The company also stated that containment actions were implemented promptly and have so far been effective, with no evidence of new unauthorized activity since those efforts began.
According to the SEC form, no evidence was found of access to the company’s customer relationship management, financial, support case management, or iHealth systems. However, the company said a portion of the exfiltrated files included configuration or implementation details affecting a small percentage of customers. F5 is continuing to review these materials and is contacting customers as needed.
Investigative findings further indicated that the NGINX product development environment, as well as F5 Distributed Cloud Services and Silverline systems, remained unaffected.
F5 has continued to work alongside federal law enforcement throughout its response and is implementing additional measures to strengthen its network defenses. Company officials reported that the breach has not had a material effect on its daily operations as of the disclosure date. Ongoing assessments are being conducted to determine if there may be any impact on the company’s financial position or results.
F5, based in Seattle, is a major player in the application security and delivery market, serving thousands of enterprise customers worldwide, including much of the Fortune 500. The company’s primary offerings include its BIG-IP line of hardware and software products, which provide network traffic management, application security, and access control, as well as its NGINX and F5 Distributed Cloud Services platforms. F5’s technologies are used extensively by businesses, government agencies, and service providers around the world.
This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.
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F5, a company that specializes in application security and delivery technology, disclosed Wednesday that it had been the target of what it’s calling a “highly sophisticated” cyberattack, which it attributes to a nation-state actor. The announcement follows authorization from the U.S. Department of Justice, which allowed F5 to delay public disclosure of the breach under
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