China Surveillance Company Hacked

Last week, someone posted something like 570 files, images and chat logs from a Chinese company called I-Soon. I-Soon sells hacking and espionage services to Chinese national and local government. Lots of details in the news articles. These arent details about the tools or techniques, more the...

SVR Cyber Actors Adapt Tactics for Initial Cloud Access

How SVR-Attributed Actors are Adapting to the Move of Government and Corporations to Cloud Infrastructure OVERVIEW This advisory details recent tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs of the group commonly known as APT29, also known as Midnight Blizzard, the Dukes, or Cozy Bear. The UK National...

New Leak Shows Business Side of China’s APT Menace

A new data leak that appears to have come from one of Chinas top private cybersecurity firms provides a rare glimpse into the commercial side of Chinas many state-sponsored hacking groups. Experts say the leak illustrates how Chinese government agencies increasingly are contracting out foreign...

North-Korean Cyber-Espionage Operations Grapples Defense Sector

Summary: There is an ongoing cyber-espionage campaign purportedly led by the North Korean threat actors, specifically targeting the global defense industry. The primary objective of these attacks is to acquire data pertaining to advanced military technology, with the intention of assisting North...

New Report Reveals North Korean Hackers Targeting Defense Firms Worldwide

North Korean state-sponsored threat actors have been attributed to a cyber espionage campaign targeting the defense sector across the world. In a joint advisory published by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution BfV and South Korea's National Intelligence Service NIS, th...

Russian-Linked Hackers Target 80+ Organizations via Roundcube Flaws

Threat actors operating with interests aligned to Belarus and Russia have been linked to a new cyber espionage campaign that likely exploited cross-site scripting XSS vulnerabilities in Roundcube webmail servers to target over 80 organizations. These entities are primarily located in Georgia,...

U.S. Government Disrupts Russia-Linked Botnet Engaged in Cyber Espionage

The U.S. government on Thursday said it disrupted a botnet comprising hundreds of small office and home office SOHO routers in the country that was put to use by the Russia-linked APT28 actor to conceal its malicious activities. "These crimes included vast spear-phishing and similar credential...

TinyTurla Next Generation - Turla APT spies on Polish NGOs

Cisco Talos has identified a new backdoor authored and operated by the Turla APT group, a Russian cyber espionage threat group. This new backdoor were calling "TinyTurla-NG" TTNG is similar to Turlas previously disclosed implant, TinyTurla, in coding style and functionality implementation. Talos...

The Zardoor Backdoor’s Silent Takeover of Saudi Charities

Summary: An espionage operation, designed to distribute a backdoor called Zardoor, was uncovered with evidence suggesting it dates back to March 2021. In May 2023, this meticulously orchestrated campaign specifically targeted non-profit organizations in Saudi Arabia. Threat Level - Amber | Attack...

Stealthy Zardoor Backdoor Targets Saudi Islamic Charity Organization

An unnamed Islamic non-profit organization in Saudi Arabia has been targeted as part of a stealthy cyber espionage campaign designed to drop a previously undocumented backdoor called Zardoor. Cisco Talos, which discovered the activity in May 2023, said the campaign has likely persisted since at...

Chinese Hackers Operate Undetected in U.S. Critical Infrastructure for Half a Decade

The U.S. government on Wednesday said the Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Volt Typhoon had been embedded into some critical infrastructure networks in the country for at least five years. Targets of the threat actor include communications, energy, transportation, and water and...

New Zardoor backdoor used in long-term cyber espionage operation targeting an Islamic organization

By Jungsoo An, Wayne Lee and Vanja Svajcer. Cisco Talos discovered a new, stealthy espionage campaign that has likely persisted since at least March 2021. The observed activity affects an Islamic non-profit organization using backdoors for a previously unreported malware family we have named...

Chinese Hackers Exploited FortiGate Flaw to Breach Dutch Military Network

Chinese state-backed hackers broke into a computer network that's used by the Dutch armed forces by targeting Fortinet FortiGate devices. "This computer network was used for unclassified research and development R&D," the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service MIVD said in a statement...

Patchwork Using Romance Scam Lures to Infect Android Devices with VajraSpy Malware

The threat actor known as Patchwork likely used romance scam lures to trap victims in Pakistan and India, and infect their Android devices with a remote access trojan called VajraSpy. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET said it uncovered 12 espionage apps, six of which were available for download from...

Microsoft Warns of Widening APT29 Espionage Attacks Targeting Global Orgs

Microsoft on Thursday said the Russian state-sponsored threat actors responsible for a cyber attack on its systems in late November 2023 have been targeting other organizations and that it's currently beginning to notify them. The development comes a day after Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE...

Big-Name Targets Push Midnight Blizzard Hacking Spree Back Into the Limelight

Newly disclosed breaches of Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise highlight the persistent threat posed by Midnight Blizzard, a notorious Russian cyber-espionage group...

Attacks, Vulnerabilities and Actors 15 January to 21 January 2024

For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Summary HiveForce Labs has recently made several significant discoveries related to cybersecurity threats. Over the past week, we identified a total of six executed attacks, two instances of adversary activity, and eight exploited...

North Korean Hackers Weaponize Fake Research to Deliver RokRAT Backdoor

Media organizations and high-profile experts in North Korean affairs have been at the receiving end of a new campaign orchestrated by a threat actor known as ScarCruft in December 2023. "ScarCruft has been experimenting with new infection chains, including the use of a technical threat research...

Iranian Hackers Masquerade as Journalists to Spy on Israel-Hamas War Experts

High-profile individuals working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the U.K., and the U.S. have been targeted by an Iranian cyber espionage group called Mind Sandstorm since November 2023. The threat actor "used bespoke phishing...

Nation-State Actors Weaponize Ivanti VPN Zero-Days, Deploying 5 Malware Families

As many as five different malware families were deployed by suspected nation-state actors as part of post-exploitation activities leveraging two zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure ICS VPN appliances since early December 2023. "These families allow the threat actors to circumvent...