The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned on Wednesday about activities by cyber pirates affiliated with the Russian government, targeting network devices and critical infrastructure in the United States and around the world.

In a statement, the Bureau said: "We are warning the public and private sectors, as well as the international community, about the threat posed by cyber pirate entities attributed to the 16th Center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to computer networks and critical infrastructure."

The Bureau explained that it had detected "cyber pirate entities affiliated with the Russian Federal Security Service exploiting the Simple Network Management Protocol and outdated network devices suffering from a vulnerability in an electronic system of the American multinational company Cisco to target entities in the United States and around the world on a large scale."

It added: "Last year, the FBI detected cyber pirate entities collecting configuration files for thousands of network devices associated with U.S. entities in critical infrastructure sectors. On some vulnerable devices, the pirates modified configuration files to enable unauthorized access."

According to the FBI, "the 16th Center unit conducting this activity is known to cybersecurity experts by many names, including 'Bears Rage' and 'Dragonfly,' which are two separate but interconnected groups that have been active for over a decade. This unit has breached network devices globally, particularly devices that accept old, unencrypted protocols."