APT41 Spies Broke Into 6 US State Networks via a Livestock App

USAHerds – an app used PDF by farmers to speed their response to diseases and other threats to their livestock – has itself become an infection vector, used to pry open at least six U.S. state networks by one of China’s most prolific state-sponsored espionage groups. In a report published by...

Daxin Espionage Backdoor Ups the Ante on Chinese Malware

The Daxin malware is taking aim at hardened government networks around the world, according to researchers, with the goal of cyberespionage. The Symantec Threat Hunter team noticed the advanced persistent threat APT weapon in action in November, noting that it’s “the most advanced piece of malwar...

CISA warns of cyberespionage by Iranian APT “MuddyWater”

Cybersecurity agencies in the US and UK have issued a joint cybersecurity advisory CSA on MuddyWater, a government-sponsored Iranian advanced persistent threat APT actor. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, the US Cyber Command Cyber...

TA2541: APT Has Been Shooting RATs at Aviation for Years

Researchers have identified an advanced persistent threat APT group responsible for a series of cyberespionage and spyware attacks against the aviation, aerospace, transportation and defense industries since at least 2017 that feature high-volume email campaigns using industry-specific lures. The...

MoleRats APT Flaunts New Trojan in Latest Cyberespionage Campaign

Known Palestinian threat actor MoleRats is likely behind a recent malicious email campaign targeting Middle Eastern governments, foreign-policy think tanks and a state-affiliated airline with a new intelligence-gathering trojan dubbed NimbleMamba, researchers said. Researchers from Proofpoint sai...

China Suspected of News Corp Cyberespionage Attack

The Chinese hackers responsible for an attack on media giant News Corp last month likely were seeking intelligence to serve China’s interests in a cyberespionage incident that shows the persistent vulnerability of corporate networks to email-based attacks, security professionals said. Reports on...

North Korean Hackers Return with Stealthier Variant of KONNI RAT Malware

A cyberespionage group with ties to North Korea has resurfaced with a stealthier variant of its remote access trojan called Konni to attack political institutions located in Russia and South Korea. "The authors are constantly making code improvements," Malwarebytes researcher Roberto Santos said...

US Military Ties Prolific MuddyWater Cyberespionage APT to Iran

U.S. Cyber Command has confirmed that MuddyWater – an advanced persistent threat APT cyberespionage actor aka Mercury, Static Kitten, TEMP.Zagros or Seedworm that’s historically targeted government victims in the Middle East – is an Iranian intelligence outfit. The link has been suspected, and no...

North Korean Hackers Start New Year with Attacks on Russian Foreign Ministry

A North Korean cyberespionage group named Konni has been linked to a series of targeted attacks aimed at the Russian Federation's Ministry of Foreign Affairs MID with New Year lures to compromise Windows systems with malware. "This activity cluster demonstrates the patient and persistent nature o...

‘Seedworm’ Attackers Target Telcos in Asia, Middle East

Attackers targeting telcos across the Middle East and Asia for the past six months are linked to Iranian state-sponsored hackers, according to researchers. The cyberespionage campaigns leverage a potent cocktail of spear phishing, known malware and legitimate network utilities that are leveraged ...

Collecting In the Dark: Tropic Trooper Targets Transportation and Government

Our long-term monitoring of the cyberespionage group Earth Centaur aka Tropic Trooper shows that the threat actors are equipped with new tools and techniques. The group seems to be targeting transportation companies and government agencies related to transportation...

Microsoft disrupts China-based hacking group Nickel

Microsoft has taken control of 42 web domains that a hacking group was using to try to breach its targets. On December 2, the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit DCU filed pleadings with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking authority to take control of the sites that it...

SolarWinds Attackers Spotted Using New Tactics, Malware

One year after the notorious and far-reaching SolarWinds supply-chain attacks, its orchestrators are on the offensive again. Researchers said they’ve seen the threat group – which Microsoft refers to as “Nobelium” and which is linked to Russia’s spy agency – compromising global business and...

Researchers Uncover Hacker-for-Hire Group That's Active Since 2015

A new cyber mercenary hacker-for-hire group dubbed "Void Balaur" has been linked to a string of cyberespionage and data theft activities targeting thousands of entities as well as human rights activists, politicians, and government officials around the world at least since 2015 for financial gain...

Experts Detail Malicious Code Dropped Using ManageEngine ADSelfService Exploit

At least nine entities across the technology, defense, healthcare, energy, and education industries were compromised by leveraging a recently patched critical vulnerability in Zoho's ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus self-service password management and single sign-on SSO solution. The spying...

SideWalk Backdoor Linked to China-Linked Spy Group ‘Grayfly’

The novel backdoor technique called SideWalk, seen in campaigns targeting US media and retailers late last month, has been tied to an adversary that’s been around for quite a while: namely, China-linked Grayfly espionage group. ESET researchers, who named and discovered the new “SparklingGoblin”...

APT41 Resurfaces as Earth Baku With New Cyberespionage Campaign

Our research paper provides an in-depth analysis of Earth Baku's new cyberespionage campaign, particularly the group's use of advanced malware tools and multiple attack vectors...

‘DeadRinger’ Targeted Exchange Servers Long Before Discovery

Threat actors linked to China exploited the notorious Microsoft Exchange ProxyLogon vulnerabilities long before they were publicly disclosed, in attacks against telecommunications companies aimed at stealing sensitive customer data and maintaining network persistence, researchers have found...

Chinese Hackers Implant PlugX Variant on Compromised MS Exchange Servers

A Chinese cyberespionage group known for targeting Southeast Asia leveraged flaws in the Microsoft Exchange Server that came to light earlier this March to deploy a previously undocumented variant of a remote access trojan RAT on compromised systems. Attributing the intrusions to a threat actor...

Hackers Posed as Aerobics Instructors for Years to Target Aerospace Employees

An Iranian cyberespionage group masqueraded as an aerobics instructor on Facebook in an attempt to infect the machine of an employee of an aerospace defense contractor with malware as part of a years-long social engineering and targeted malware campaign. Enterprise security firm Proofpoint...