Cisco Systems Inc. said it was the victim of a cyberattack in which a hacker repeatedly attempted to gain access to the Silicon Valley firm’s corporate network.
Cisco said it became aware of a potential compromise on May 24, and disclosed it on Wednesday after the hacker leaked a list of the files it had stolen on the dark web.
An investigation determined that the hacker broke into Cisco’s network by cracking into an employee’s personal Google account, which synchronized their saved passwords across the web, the San Jose, California-based company said in a blog post published on Wednesday. The attacker then pretended to be trusted organizations during phone calls with the employee and successfully persuaded the employee to accept a multifactor push authentication notification to their device. That allowed the hacker to gain access to Cisco’s network using the employee’s credentials.
