Iran Threatens to Start Attacking Major US Tech Firms on April 1

Tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are among those on a target list released by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps...

Iranian Hackers Launch 'SpearSpecter' Spy Operation on Defense & Government Targets

The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor known as APT42 has been observed targeting individuals and organizations that are of interest to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC as part of a new espionage-focused campaign. The activity, detected in early September 2025 and assessed to be...

U.S. Charges Three Iranian Nationals for Election Interference and Cybercrimes

U.S. federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed criminal charges against three Iranian nationals who are allegedly employed with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC for their targeting of current and former officials to steal sensitive data. The Department of Justice DoJ accused Masoud Jalili,...

Iranian Cyber Group TA453 Targets Jewish Leader with New AnvilEcho Malware

Iranian state-sponsored threat actors have been observed orchestrating spear-phishing campaigns targeting a prominent Jewish figure starting in late July 2024 with the goal of delivering a new intelligence-gathering tool called AnvilEcho. Enterprise security company Proofpoint is tracking the...

New TTPs observed in Mint Sandstorm campaign targeting high-profile individuals at universities and research orgs

Since November 2023, Microsoft has observed a distinct subset of Mint Sandstorm PHOSPHORUS targeting high-profile individuals working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In this campaign,...

Iranian Group Tortoiseshell Launches New Wave of IMAPLoader Malware Attacks

The Iranian threat actor known as Tortoiseshell has been attributed to a new wave of watering hole attacks that are designed to deploy a malware dubbed IMAPLoader. "IMAPLoader is a .NET malware that has the ability to fingerprint victim systems using native Windows utilities and acts as a...

Iranian Hackers Using POWERSTAR Backdoor in Targeted Espionage Attacks

Charming Kitten, the nation-state actor affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC, has been attributed to a bespoke spear-phishing campaign that delivers an updated version of a fully-featured PowerShell backdoor called POWERSTAR. "There have been improved operational security...

Nation-state threat actor Mint Sandstorm refines tradecraft to attack high-value targets

Over the past several months, Microsoft has observed a mature subgroup of Mint Sandstorm, an Iranian nation-state actor previously tracked as PHOSPHORUS, refining its tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs. Specifically, this subset has rapidly weaponized N-day vulnerabilities in common...

Data Wiper Malware Disguised As Ransomware Targets Israeli Entities

Researchers on Tuesday disclosed a new espionage campaign that resorts to destructive data-wiping attacks targeting Israeli entities at least since December 2020 that camouflage the malicious activity as ransomware extortions. Cybersecurity firm SentinelOne attributed the attacks to a nation-stat...

Researchers Uncover Iranian State-Sponsored Ransomware Operation

Iran has been linked to yet another state-sponsored ransomware operation through a contracting company based in the country, according to new analysis. "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC was operating a state-sponsored ransomware campaign through an Iranian contracting company called...