Governments on high alert after CISA snuffs out Firestarter backdoor on fed network

CISA and the UK NCSC disclosed discovery of a sophisticated backdoor called "Firestarter" that targeted Cisco Secure Firewall (ASA/FTD) devices and maintained persistent access even after device updates; one U.S. federal civilian agency was confirmed compromised and the activity is suspected to be part of a broader campaign against government and critical national infrastructure, prompting advisories to use YARA rules, collect forensic evidence, and report incidents to authorities.