Researchers Uncover Hacking Operations Targeting Government Entities in South Korea

A North Korean threat actor active since 2012 has been behind a new espionage campaign targeting high-profile government officials associated with its southern counterpart to install an Android and Windows backdoor for collecting sensitive information. Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes attributed t...

US Seizes Domains Used by SolarWinds Hackers in Cyber Espionage Attacks

Days after Microsoft, Secureworks, and Volexity shed light on a new spear-phishing activity unleashed by the Russian hackers who breached SolarWinds IT management software, the U.S. Department of Justice DoJ Tuesday said it intervened to take control of two command-and-control C2 and malware...

Kimsuky APT continues to target South Korean government using AppleSeed backdoor

This blog post was authored by Hossein Jazi. The Kimsuky APT—also known as Thallium, Black Banshee, and Velvet Chollima—is a North Korean threat actor that has been active since 2012. The group conducts cyber espionage operations to target government entities mainly in South Korea. On December...

A week in security (May 24 -30)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs we discussed VPN Android apps, how even the FBI has to deal with insider threats, Chromes Incognito mode, new rules for critical infrastructure spurred by the Colonial Pipeline attack, how to delete your Twitter account, what encryption is, how healthcare service...

A New Bug in Siemens PLCs Could Let Hackers Run Malicious Code Remotely

Siemens on Friday shipped firmware updates to address a severe vulnerability in SIMATIC S7-1200 and S7-1500 programmable logic controllers PLCs that could be exploited by a malicious actor to remotely gain access to protected areas of the memory and achieve unrestricted and undetected code...

Chinese Cyber Espionage Hackers Continue to Target Pulse Secure VPN Devices

Cybersecurity researchers from FireEye unmasked additional tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs adopted by Chinese threat actors who were recently found abusing Pulse Secure VPN devices to drop malicious web shells and exfiltrate sensitive information from enterprise networks. FireEye's...

Re-Checking Your Pulse: Updates on Chinese APT Actors Compromising Pulse Secure VPN Devices

On April 20, 2021, Mandiant published detailed results of our investigations into compromised Pulse Secure devices by suspected Chinese espionage operators. This blog post is intended to provide an update on our findings, give additional recommendations to network defenders, and discuss potential...

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...

Pakistan-Linked Hackers Added New Windows Malware to Its Arsenal

Cybercriminals with suspected ties to Pakistan continue to rely on social engineering as a crucial component of its operations as part of an evolving espionage campaign against Indian targets, according to new research. The attacks have been linked to a group called Transparent Tribe, also known ...

Fresh Loader Targets Aviation Victims with Spy RATs

A cyberattack campaign that goes after aviation targets has been uncovered, which is spreading remote access trojan RAT malware bent on cyber-espionage. Researchers from Microsoft said this week on Twitter that spear-phishing emails are the main attack vector. Individuals in the aerospace and...

iPhone Hack Allegedly Used to Spy on China’s Uyghurs

In 2019, a Chinese security researcher working with the internet security and antivirus company Qihoo 360 unveiled an intricately woven exploit: One that would allegedly let a remote attacker easily jailbreak an iPhone X iOS 12.1. The researcher, Qixun Zhao, dubbed the exploit Chaos, for good...

New Stealthy Rootkit Infiltrated Networks of High-Profile Organizations

An unknown threat actor with the capabilities to evolve and tailor its toolset to target environments infiltrated high-profile organizations in Asia and Africa with an evasive Windows rootkit since at least 2018. Called 'Moriya,' the malware is a "passive backdoor which allows attackers to inspec...

ALERT — New 21Nails Exim Bugs Expose Millions of Email Servers to Hacking

The maintainers of Exim have released patches to remediate as many as 21 security vulnerabilities in its software that could enable unauthenticated attackers to achieve complete remote code execution and gain root privileges. Collectively named '21Nails,' the flaws include 11 vulnerabilities that...

New Chinese Malware Targeted Russia's Largest Nuclear Submarine Designer

A threat actor believed to be working on behalf of Chinese state-sponsored interests was recently observed targeting a Russia-based defense contractor involved in designing nuclear submarines for the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. The phishing attack, which singled out a general director...

PortDoor Espionage Malware Takes Aim at Russian Defense Sector

A previously undocumented backdoor malware, dubbed PortDoor, is being used by a probable Chinese advanced persistent threat actor APT to target the Russian defense sector, according to researchers. The Cybereason Nocturnus Team observed the cybercriminals specifically going after the Rubin Design...

Ghostwriter Update: Cyber Espionage Group UNC1151 Likely Conducts Ghostwriter Influence Activity

In July 2020, Mandiant Threat Intelligence released a public report detailing an ongoing influence campaign we named “Ghostwriter.” Ghostwriter is a cyber-enabled influence campaign which primarily targets audiences in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland and promotes narratives critical of the North...

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Cyber Operations: Trends and Best Practices for Network Defenders

Summary The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, Department of Homeland Security DHS, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA assess Russian Foreign Intelligence Service SVR cyber actors—also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 29 APT 29, the Dukes, CozyBear, and Yttrium—will...

Facebook Busts Palestinian Hackers' Operation Spreading Mobile Spyware

Facebook on Wednesday said it took steps to dismantle malicious activities perpetrated by two state-sponsored hacking groups operating out of Palestine that abused its platform to distribute malware. The social media giant attributed the attacks to a network connected to the Preventive Security...

The FBI Is Now Securing Networks Without Their Owners’ Permission

In January, we learned about a Chinese espionage campaign that exploited four zero-days in Microsoft Exchange. One of the characteristics of the campaign, in the later days when the Chinese probably realized that the vulnerabilities would soon be fixed, was to install a web shell in compromised...

Crossing the Line: When Cyberattacks Become Acts of War

The Cold War concept isn’t outdated. In the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, the battleground has simply shifted from conflicts between ideological proxy governments to cyberspace. And the opponents have grown from a few primary nations into a broad range of sovereign threat actors. Th...