Pakistan-based Transparent Tribe Hackers Targeting Indian Educational Institutions

The Transparent Tribe threat actor has been linked to a set of weaponized Microsoft Office documents in intrusions directed against the Indian education sector to deploy a continuously maintained piece of malware called Crimson RAT. While the suspected Pakistan-based threat group is known to targ...

Pakistan-based Transparent Tribe Hackers Targeting Indian Educational Institutions

The Transparent Tribe threat actor has been linked to a set of weaponized Microsoft Office documents in intrusions directed against the Indian education sector to deploy a continuously maintained piece of malware called Crimson RAT. While the suspected Pakistan-based threat group is known to targ...

Desert Falcon Strikes with an Upgraded Arsenal

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary Desert Falcons, a cyber-espionage group, has been seen deploying upgraded variants of its malware toolset in strikes against Palestine and Middle Eastern entities. To receive real-time threat advisories,...

DEV-0196: QuaDream’s “KingsPawn” malware used to target civil society in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia

April 2023 update – Microsoft Threat Intelligence has shifted to a new threat actor naming taxonomy aligned around the theme of weather. DEV-0196 is now tracked as Carmine Tsunami. To learn more about this evolution, how the new taxonomy represents the origin, unique traits, and impact of threat...

Iran-Based Hackers Caught Carrying Out Destructive Attacks Under Ransomware Guise

The Iranian nation-state group known as MuddyWater has been observed carrying out destructive attacks on hybrid environments under the guise of a ransomware operation. That's according to new findings from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team, which discovered the threat actor targeting both...

Unraveling North Korea’s Cyber Espionage Group APT43 Targeting Geopolitical Interests

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary APT43 is a cyber espionage group that serves North Korean regime interests by targeting government organizations, academics, and think tanks focused on Korean peninsula geopolitical issues, mainly in Sout...

Actors, Threats and Vulnerabilities 27 March to 2 April 2023

For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here Summary For a detailed threat digest, download the pdf file here HiveForce Labs recently made several significant discoveries related to cybersecurity threats. Over the past week, they identified a total of Nine attacks that were executed...

Winter Vivern APT Targets European Government Entities with Zimbra Vulnerability

The advanced persistent threat APT actor known as Winter Vivern is now targeting officials in Europe and the U.S. as part of an ongoing cyber espionage campaign. "TA473 since at least February 2023 has continuously leveraged an unpatched Zimbra vulnerability in publicly facing webmail portals tha...

Chinese RedGolf Group Targeting Windows and Linux Systems with KEYPLUG Backdoor

A Chinese state-sponsored threat activity group tracked as RedGolf has been attributed to the use of a custom Windows and Linux backdoor called KEYPLUG. "RedGolf is a particularly prolific Chinese state-sponsored threat actor group that has likely been active for many years against a wide range o...

Donot APT Group Targets Government and Military Orgs in South Asia

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary The Donot group, also known as APT-Q-38, is a state-sponsored threat actor believed to operate out of a South Asian country. They primarily engage in network espionage activities targeting government...

Chinese Cyber Espionage Targets Middle Eastern Telecoms

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary Chinese cyber espionage actors, Gallium and APT41, linked to Operation Soft Cell campaign, are targeting Middle Eastern telecommunications sector. To receive real-time threat advisories, please follow...

North Korean APT43 Group Uses Cybercrime to Fund Espionage Operations

A new North Korean nation-state cyber operator has been attributed to a series of campaigns orchestrated to gather strategic intelligence that aligns with Pyongyang's geopolitical interests since 2018. Google-owned Mandiant, which is tracking the activity cluster under the moniker APT43 , said th...

North Korean APT43 Group Uses Cybercrime to Fund Espionage Operations

A new North Korean nation-state cyber operator has been attributed to a series of campaigns orchestrated to gather strategic intelligence that aligns with Pyongyang's geopolitical interests since 2018. Google-owned Mandiant, which is tracking the activity cluster under the moniker APT43, said the...

Bitter APT Group Targets Chinese Energy Sector with New phishing Campaign

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary A new cyber espionage campaign targeting the energy sector in China by the South Asian threat group Bitter APT. The campaign involves the use of social engineering tactics through phishing emails that...

President Biden Signs Executive Order Restricting Use of Commercial Spyware

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order that restricts the use of commercial spyware by federal government agencies. The order said the spyware ecosystem "poses significant counterintelligence or security risks to the United States Government or significant risks of improper...

Operation Soft Cell: Chinese Hackers Breach Middle East Telecom Providers

Telecommunication providers in the Middle East are the subject of new cyber attacks that commenced in the first quarter of 2023. The intrusion set has been attributed to a Chinese cyber espionage actor associated with a long-running campaign dubbed Operation Soft Cell based on tooling overlaps...

Bad Magic APT employs new CommonMagic Framework and PowerMagic Backdoor

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary New Bad magic APT was discovered using a new backdoor called PowerMagic and a malicious framework called CommonMagic to target organizations in the administrative, agriculture, and transportation sectors...

UNC3886 targets technologies with custom malware and exploits zero-day vulnerabilities

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary UNC3886 is a cyber espionage Chinese group that targets technologies without EDR solutions and exploits zero-day vulnerabilities to steal user credentials and maintain access. To receive real-time threat...

From Ransomware to Cyber Espionage: 55 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Weaponized in 2022

As many as 55 zero-day vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild in 2022, with most of the flaws discovered in software from Microsoft, Google, and Apple. While this figure represents a decrease from the year before, when a staggering 81 zero-days were weaponized, it still represents a significa...

From Ransomware to Cyber Espionage: 55 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Weaponized in 2022

As many as 55 zero-day vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild in 2022, with most of the flaws discovered in software from Microsoft, Google, and Apple. While this figure represents a decrease from the year before, when a staggering 81 zero-days were weaponized, it still represents a significa...