Chinese Hackers Compromise Telecom Servers to Spy on SMS Messages

A group of Chinese hackers carrying out political espionage for Beijing has been found targeting telecommunications companies with a new piece of malware designed to spy on text messages sent or received by highly targeted individuals. Dubbed "MessageTap ," the backdoor malware is a 64-bit ELF da...

The commoditization of mobile espionage software

By Matthew Valites with contributions by Joanne Kim and Edmund Brumaghin. Executive summary Mobile stalkerware has all sorts of wide-ranging consequences. The creators of these types of apps can track user's locations, see their social media usage and more. And they certainly open the door for...

MESSAGETAP: Who’s Reading Your Text Messages?

FireEye Mandiant recently discovered a new malware family used by APT41 a Chinese APT group that is designed to monitor and save SMS traffic from specific phone numbers, IMSI numbers and keywords for subsequent theft. Named MESSAGETAP, the tool was deployed by APT41 in a telecommunications networ...

Fancy Bear Targets Sporting, Anti-Doping Orgs As 2020 Olympics Loom

At least 16 anti-doping authorities and sporting organizations around the world have been hit by cyberattacks as the world begins to gear up for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which kick off July 2020. The attacks, which began Sept. 16, have been linked to infamous Russian threat group Fancy Bea...

Microsoft Reports Global Cyberattacks on Sporting and Anti-Doping Organizations from Russian Espionage Actors

Microsoft publicly released information revealing an uptick in cyberattacks globally targeting anti-doping authorities and sporting organizations. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC routinely tracks malicious activity originating from the Russian advanced persistent threat APT group 2...

Sophisticated Spy Kit Targets Russians with Rare GSM Plugin

A sophisticated cyberespionage platform called Attor has come to light, sporting an unusual capability for fingerprinting mobile devices as part of its attacks on government and diplomatic victims. According to researchers at ESET, Attor, which has flown under the radar since at least 2013, also...

Explained: war shipping

Yesterday, Mike from the mailroom came up and asked whether I knew anyone called “Simon Smith.” He received an envelope addressed to our company and to the attention of Mr. Smith, but there was no one by that name on his list of employees. It wasn’t on mine either and HR was unaware of a person b...

New Reductor Malware Hijacks HTTPS Traffic

Researchers have discovered a new malware strain, dubbed Reductor, that allows hackers to manipulate Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure HTTPS traffic by tweaking a browser’s random numbers generator, used to ensure a private connection between the client and server. Once infected, Reductor is use...

New Research into Russian Malware

There's some interesting new research about Russian APT malware: The Russian government has fostered competition among the three agencies, which operate independently from one another, and compete for funds. This, in turn, has resulted in each group developing and hoarding its tools, rather than...

A Look Into Continuous Efforts By Chinese Hackers to Target Foreign Governments

Phishing is still one of the widely used strategies by cybercriminals and espionage groups to gain an initial foothold on the targeted systems. Though hacking someone with phishing attacks was easy a decade ago, the evolution of threat detection technologies and cyber awareness among people has...

Dtrack RAT is Behind Virulent ATM-Espionage Campaign

An espionage malware called Dtrack – and a related variant, ATMDtrack – has been traced back to the notorious North Korea-linked Lazarus Group APT. Both have been identified this month targeting victims in India. According to researcher Konstantin Zykov of Kaspersky, researchers first uncovered...

Russian APT Map Reveals 22,000 Connections Between 2000 Malware Samples

Though Russia still has an undiversified and stagnant economy, it was one of the early countries in the world to realize the value of remotely conducted cyber intrusions. In recent years, many Russia hacking groups have emerged as one of the most sophisticated nation-state actors in cyberspace,...

New Malware Uses Windows BITS Service to Stealthy Exfiltrate Data

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new computer virus associated with the Stealth Falcon state-sponsored cyber espionage group that abuses a built-in component of the Microsoft Windows operating system to stealthily exfiltrate stolen data to attacker-controlled server. Active since 2012,...

CB TAU Threat Intelligence Notification: State-Sponsored Espionage Group Targeting Multiple Verticals with ‘Crosswalk’

FireEye recently reported on APT41, a Chinese state-sponsored espionage group. The group has been documented as targeting healthcare, high-tech, and telecommunications companies for traditional corporate espionage purposes. Additionally this group has also targeted companies in the video game...

Elderly China Chopper Tool Still Going Strong in Multiple Campaigns

A nine-year-old web shell used for providing remote access to web servers for cyberattackers is staying very active despite its advanced age in cyber-years, anyway. Researchers said they’ve spotted it being used in several recent campaigns – all with disparate goals. The tool, known as China...

A week in security (August 19 – 25)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we reported on the presence of Magecart on a type of poker software; outlined how the Key Negotiation of Bluetooth KNOB attack works; followed the money on a Bitcoin sextortion campaign; looked back at DEF CON 27; and reported on continuing ransomware attacks on...

Healthcare: Research Data and PII Continuously Targeted by Multiple Threat Actors

The healthcare industry faces a range of threat groups and malicious activity. Given the critical role that healthcare plays within society and its relationship with our most sensitive information, the risk to this sector is especially consequential. It may also be one of the major reasons why we...

GAME OVER: Detecting and Stopping an APT41 Operation

In August 2019, FireEye released the “Double Dragon” report on our newest graduated threat group, APT41. A China-nexus dual espionage and financially-focused group, APT41 targets industries such as gaming, healthcare, high-tech, higher education, telecommunications, and travel services. APT41 is...

Recent Cloud Atlas activity

Also known as Inception, Cloud Atlas is an actor that has a long history of cyber-espionage operations targeting industries and governmental entities. We first reported Cloud Atlas in 2014 and we've been following its activities ever since. From the beginning of 2019 until July, we have been able...

APT41: A Dual Espionage and Cyber Crime Operation

Today, FireEye Intelligence is releasing a comprehensive report detailing APT41, a prolific Chinese cyber threat group that carries out state-sponsored espionage activity in parallel with financially motivated operations. APT41 is unique among tracked China-based actors in that it leverages...