Security News > 2022 > July > Apple network traffic takes mysterious detour through Russia

Apple's internet traffic took an unwelcome detour through Russian networking equipment for about twelve hours between July 26 and July 27.

In a write-up for MANRS, a public interest group that looks after internet routing, Internet Society senior internet technology manager Aftab Siddiqui said that Russia's Rostelecom started announcing routes for part of Apple's network on Tuesday, a practice referred to as BGP hijacking.

In 2018 cyberthieves used BGP hijacking to meddle with Amazon's Route 53 DNS service and redirect internet traffic from a cryptocurrency website to a phishing site hosted in Russia.

The redirection of Apple's networking traffic began about 2125 UTC on Tuesday, according to Siddiqui, when Rostelecom's AS12389 network began announcing 17.70.96.0/19, which is part of Apple's 17.0.0.0/8 block and is usually announced as part of the larger 17.0.0.0/9 block.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment and The Register is unaware of any public statement the company may have made about the hijacking of its network traffic.

The Register asked MANRS whether anyone there had heard anything from Apple since its post was published and a spokesperson replied, "We have not heard anything from Apple yet on this issue. The MANRS team is reaching out privately to learn more about the incident."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/07/27/apple_networking_traffic_russia_bgp/