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...

Listening in at Latimer House. RF emissions and more

Loose lips sink ships, loose tweets sink fleets. Intelligence, espionage, technological advancements and other learnings from our annual company conference at the historic and underappreciated Latimer House. “Loose lips might sink ships” was a phrase used in UK propaganda posters in WWII. It...

Decoding UAC-0050’s Cyber Espionage Playbook

Summary: UAC-0050, a threat actor focused on Ukraine, is using new tactics to spread the Remcos RAT. In their latest move, UAC-0050 shows advanced adaptability by cleverly avoiding detection through a hidden data transfer method and outsmarting EDR systems. Threat Level - Amber | Attack Report Fo...

Attacks, Vulnerabilities and Actors 18 December to 24 December 2023

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 15 executed attacks, 4 instances of adversary activity, and 7 exploited vulnerabilities,...

Muddywater Utilizes Custom Tools to Target Telecom Companies

Summary: Iranian espionage group Muddywater,targeted telecommunications companies in Egypt, Sudan, and Tanzania in November 2023. The attackers employed a diverse set of tools for this activity, including leveraging the MuddyC2Go infrastructure. Additionally, they utilized the SimpleHelp remote...

Cloud Atlas' Spear-Phishing Attacks Target Russian Agro and Research Companies

The threat actor referred to as Cloud Atlas has been linked to a set of spear-phishing attacks on Russian enterprises. Targets included a Russian agro-industrial enterprise and a state-owned research company, according to a report from F.A.C.C.T., a standalone cybersecurity company formed after...

Iranian Hackers Using MuddyC2Go in Telecom Espionage Attacks Across Africa

The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has leveraged a newly discovered command-and-control C2 framework called MuddyC2Go in its attacks on the telecommunications sector in Egypt, Sudan, and Tanzania. The Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, is tracking the activity under th...

Iranian State-Sponsored OilRig Group Deploys 3 New Malware Downloaders

The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor known as OilRig deployed three different downloader malware throughout 2022 to maintain persistent access to victim organizations located in Israel. The three new downloaders have been named ODAgent, OilCheck, and OilBooster by Slovak cybersecurity company...

Russian APT28 Hackers Targeting 13 Nations in Ongoing Cyber Espionage Campaign

The Russian nation-state threat actor known as APT28 has been observed making use of lures related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to facilitate the delivery of a custom backdoor called HeadLace. IBM X-Force is tracking the adversary under the name ITG05, which is also known as BlueDelta, Fancy...

The sound of you typing on your keyboard could reveal your password

As if password authentications coffin needed any more nails, researchers in the UK have discovered yet another way to hammer one in. The technique, developed at Durham University, the University of Surrey, and Royal Holloway University of London, builds on previous work to produce a more accurate...

The sound of you typing on your keyboard could reveal your password

As if password authentications coffin needed any more nails, researchers in the UK have discovered yet another way to hammer one in. The technique, developed at Durham University, the University of Surrey, and Royal Holloway University of London, builds on previous work to produce a more accurate...

Star Blizzard increases sophistication and evasion in ongoing attacks

Microsoft Threat Intelligence continues to track and disrupt malicious activity attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor we track as Star Blizzard formerly SEABORGIUM, also known as COLDRIVER and Callisto Group. Star Blizzard has improved their detection evasion capabilities since 2022 while...