HONG KONG, September 15 — Login credentials for some Fortinet network devices were suspected to have been exposed in the FortiBleed credential leak disclosed this year, potentially affecting more than 70,000 devices worldwide, according to a security blog drawing on recent incidents. The leak sits at the centre of a broader warning about Internet-edge devices — VPN appliances, firewalls, routers and remote access systems that act as critical gateways between the Internet and an organisation’s internal network.
If compromised, attackers may gain access to internal systems, steal account information, maintain a long-term presence, or go on to cause a data breach or launch a ransomware attack.
Japan’s Digital Agency breach
The most prominent cited case is Japan’s Digital Agency, which announced that its Government Solution Service had been compromised through a vulnerability in VPN-related equipment. Approximately 246,000 records of personal data may have been affected, involving government personnel, contractors and partners. That incident is presented as evidence that even where a large organisation has deployed multiple security measures, attackers may still gain initial access and cause a large-scale data breach if Internet-edge devices remain vulnerable or account credentials are stolen.
Attacks targeting VPNs, firewalls and remote access services have continued to increase in recent years, and such incidents show Internet-edge devices have become a common entry point into organisations. Some recently disclosed high-risk vulnerabilities affecting Fortinet firewall products have been actively exploited by attackers, meaning devices that have not yet been patched may remain exposed.
Patching is only the first step
Even prompt patching does not eliminate risk. A system update can close a vulnerability, but it does not automatically remove access paths established by an attacker before the patch was applied. The attacker may already have entered the network, obtained accounts or credentials, and continued operating through malicious accounts, backdoors or other persistence mechanisms.
The main risk in a credential leak such as FortiBleed is that authentication data exposed before a vulnerability was patched may remain valid afterwards, allowing attackers to sign in again and continue their intrusion. Organisations should therefore not only patch vulnerabilities, but also review account security, active sessions, credentials and system logs to determine whether any unauthorised access has occurred, and depending on the risk reset credentials, revoke active sessions and conduct an incident investigation.
The compromise of an Internet-edge device is often the beginning of an attack chain, not the end; after gaining initial access, attackers may expand their reach, establish persistence, and cause more serious harm to operations and data.
Event-season exposure
Major conferences, exhibitions, sporting events and important festivals often increase an organisation’s public exposure and may heighten the risk of cyberattacks, with attackers commonly prioritising Internet-facing VPNs, firewalls and management interfaces and exploiting known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations or leaked account credentials. Pre-event security checks should therefore address not only system availability but also signs of compromise and incident response readiness.
HKCERT recommends organisations recheck relevant devices and systems before important events, and advises a complete protection process covering asset inventory, account and credential management, monitoring for abnormal behaviour, intrusion investigation, incident response and business continuity arrangements. Organisations can adopt an “Assume Breach” security mindset: after patching, proactively verify whether accounts, credentials and internal systems have been compromised, and search for backdoors, malicious accounts and other persistence mechanisms.
Combining patching, verification and continuous monitoring is described as the only way to reduce more effectively the risk of attackers maintaining a long-term presence or regaining access. HKCERT’s 24-hour incident hotline is (852) 8105 6060, with email contact also available. A related HKCERT item, “Mid-Year Review: HKCERT Security Incident Statistics and Cybersecurity Trends in the First Half of 2026”, is dated 31 Aug 2026.
What to watch next is whether organisations treat the FortiBleed exposure as a credential-hygiene problem rather than a patching problem alone — and whether pre-event checks move from availability testing to active hunting for signs of compromise.
