Juniper breach mystery starts to clear with new details on hackers and US role

Juniper Networks headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, US. More than five years later, the breach of Juniper's network remains an enduring mystery in computer security, an attack on America's software supply chain that potentially exposed highly sensitive customers including telecommunications companies and US military agencies to years of spying before the company issued a patch. — Bloomberg

Days before Christmas in 2015, Juniper Networks Inc alerted users that it had been breached. In a brief statement, the company said it had discovered “unauthorised code” in one of its network security products, allowing hackers to decipher encrypted communications and gain high-level access to customers’ computer systems.

Further details were scant, but Juniper made clear the implications were serious: It urged users to download a software update “with the highest priority”.