Frozen in transit: Secret Blizzard’s AiTM campaign against diplomats

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has uncovered a cyberespionage campaign by the Russian state actor we track as Secret Blizzard that has been targeting embassies located in Moscow using an adversary-in-the-middle AiTM position to deploy their custom ApolloShadow malware. ApolloShadow has the...

China-Linked MirrorFace Deploys ANEL and AsyncRAT in New Cyber Espionage Operation

Threat hunters have shed more light on a previously disclosed malware campaign undertaken by the China-aligned MirrorFace threat actor that targeted a diplomatic organization in the European Union with a backdoor known as ANEL. The attack, detected by ESET in late August 2024, singled out a Centr...

SideWinder APT Targets Maritime, Nuclear, and IT Sectors Across Asia, Middle East, and Africa

Maritime and logistics companies in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have become the target of an advanced persistent threat APT group dubbed SideWinder. The attacks, observed by Kaspersky in 2024, spread across Bangladesh, Cambodia, Djibouti, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates,...

U.S. Releases High-Profile Russian Hackers in Diplomatic Prisoner Exchange

In a historic prisoner exchange between Belarus, Germany, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, and the U.S., two Russian nationals serving time for cybercrime activities have been freed and repatriated to their country. This includes Roman Valerevich Seleznev and Vladislav Klyushin, who are part of a group ...

RedJuliett Cyber Espionage Campaign Hits 75 Taiwanese Organizations

A likely China-linked state-sponsored threat actor has been linked to a cyber espionage campaign targeting government, academic, technology, and diplomatic organizations in Taiwan between November 2023 and April 2024. Recorded Future's Insikt Group is tracking the activity under the name...

French Diplomatic Entities Targeted in Russian-Linked Cyber Attacks

State-sponsored actors with ties to Russia have been linked to targeted cyber attacks aimed at French diplomatic entities, the country's information security agency ANSSI said in an advisory. The attacks have been attributed to a cluster tracked by Microsoft under the name Midnight Blizzard...

Inside Operation Diplomatic Specter: Chinese APT Group's Stealthy Tactics Exposed

Governmental entities in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are the target of a Chinese advanced persistent threat APT group as part of an ongoing cyber espionage campaign dubbed Operation Diplomatic Specter since at least late 2022. "An analysis of this threat actor's activity reveals long-term...

Turla Group Deploys LunarWeb and LunarMail Backdoors in Diplomatic Missions

An unnamed European Ministry of Foreign Affairs MFA and its three diplomatic missions in the Middle East were targeted by two previously undocumented backdoors tracked as LunarWeb and LunarMail. ESET, which identified the activity, attributed it with medium confidence to the Russia-aligned...

New Backdoor Targeting European Officials Linked to Indian Diplomatic Events

A previously undocumented threat actor dubbed SPIKEDWINE has been observed targeting officials in European countries with Indian diplomatic missions using a new backdoor called WINELOADER. The adversary, according to a report from Zscaler ThreatLabz, used a PDF file in emails that purported to co...

jaguarlandroverdiplomatic.com Cross Site Scripting vulnerability OBB-3851504

Following the coordinated and responsible vulnerability disclosure guidelines of the ISO 29147 standard, Open Bug Bounty has: a. verified the vulnerability and confirmed its existence; b. notified the website operator about its existence. Technical details of the vulnerability are currently hidde...

Russian Hackers Use Zulip Chat App for Covert C&C in Diplomatic Phishing Attacks

An ongoing campaign targeting ministries of foreign affairs of NATO-aligned countries points to the involvement of Russian threat actors. The phishing attacks feature PDF documents with diplomatic lures, some of which are disguised as coming from Germany, to deliver a variant of a malware called...

BlueBravo Deploys GraphicalProton Backdoor Against European Diplomatic Entities

The Russian nation-state actor known as BlueBravo has been observed targeting diplomatic entities throughout Eastern Europe with the goal of delivering a new backdoor called GraphicalProton, exemplifying the continuous evolution of the threat. The phishing campaign is characterized by the use of...

Chinese Hackers Use HTML Smuggling to Infiltrate European Ministries with PlugX

A Chinese nation-state group has been observed targeting Foreign Affairs ministries and embassies in Europe using HTML smuggling techniques to deliver the PlugX remote access trojan on compromised systems. Cybersecurity firm Check Point said the activity, dubbed SmugX, has been ongoing since at...

The US Is Spying on the UN Secretary General

The Washington Post is reporting that the US is spying on the UN Secretary General. The reports on Guterres appear to contain the secretary generals personal conversations with aides regarding diplomatic encounters. They indicate that the United States relied on spying powers granted under the...

Chinese Hacker Group 'Flea' Targets American Ministries with Graphican Backdoor

Foreign affairs ministries in the Americas have been targeted by a Chinese state-sponsored actor named Flea as part of a recent campaign that spanned from late 2022 to early 2023. The cyber attacks, per Broadcom's Symantec, involved a new backdoor codenamed Graphican. Some of the other targets...

Unveiling the Stealthy Operations of GoldenJackal APT Group

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary GoldenJackal is an APT group targeting government and diplomatic entities in the Middle East and South Asia. Their advanced capabilities include a range of .NET malware tools for gaining control, stealing...

GoldenJackal: New Threat Group Targeting Middle Eastern and South Asian Governments

Government and diplomatic entities in the Middle East and South Asia are the target of a new advanced persistent threat actor named GoldenJackal. Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which has been keeping tabs on the group's activities since mid-2020, characterized the adversary as both capable...

Meet the GoldenJackal APT group. Don’t expect any howls

GoldenJackal is an APT group, active since 2019, that usually targets government and diplomatic entities in the Middle East and South Asia. Despite the fact that they began their activities years ago, this group is generally unknown and, as far as we know, has not been publicly described. We...

N. Korean Kimsuky Hackers Using New Recon Tool ReconShark in Latest Cyberattacks

The North Korean state-sponsored threat actor known as Kimsuky has been discovered using a new reconnaissance tool called ReconShark as part of an ongoing global campaign. "ReconShark is actively delivered to specifically targeted individuals through spear-phishing emails, OneDrive links leading ...

Tonto Team Uses Anti-Malware File to Launch Attacks on South Korean Institutions

South Korean education, construction, diplomatic, and political institutions are at the receiving end of new attacks perpetrated by a China-aligned threat actor known as the Tonto Team. "Recent cases have revealed that the group is using a file related to anti-malware products to ultimately execu...