US Warns of ‘Catastrophic’ Hacks After Cyber Firm F5 Breach

The cybersecurity company F5 Inc. said nation-state hackers breached its networks, gaining “long-term, persistent access” to certain systems and stealing some source code. The breach prompted alerts from cybersecurity agencies in the US and UK, with a senior US official warning of potentially “catastrophic” compromises.

The Seattle, Washington-based company discovered on August 9 that attackers had compromised its systems, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The intruders stole information about F5’s BIG-IP product development platform, including portions of its source code and details about some vulnerabilities the company was working on, according to the statement.