Cisco routers have been breached according to security researchers.

The affected routers are 1841, 2811 and 3825, according to FireEye. Cisco had discontinued selling the products but still supports customers using them.

The clandestine attacks are on routers that direct traffic around the globe, potentially allowing suspected cyberspies to harvest vast amounts of data while going undetected.

U.S. security research firm FireEye said on Tuesday that a highly sophisticated form of malicious software, dubbed SYNful Knock, has been implanted in routers made by Cisco.

FireEye Chief Executive Dave DeWalt told Reuters of his company’s discovery: "If you own (seize control of) the router, you own the data of all the companies and government organizations that sit behind that router."

“This is the ultimate spying tool, the ultimate corporate espionage tool, the ultimate cybercrime tool,” DeWalt said.

Experts are in agreement that only nations are capable of this kind of attack. That includes Britain, China, Israel, Russia, and the United States.

Source: Fortune.com