Turla, a Russian Espionage Group, Piggybacked on Other Hackers' USB Infections

The infamous, FSB-connected Turla group took over other hackers' servers, exploiting their USB drive malware for targeted espionage...

Researchers Warn of Kavach 2FA Phishing Attacks Targeting Indian Govt. Officials

A new targeted phishing campaign has zoomed in on a two-factor authentication solution called Kavach that's used by Indian government officials. Cybersecurity firm Securonix dubbed the activity STEPPYKAVACH, attributing it to a threat actor known as SideCopy based on tactical overlaps with prior...

China-based MirrorFace APT group targeting Japanese Political Entities

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary A Chinese-speaking APT group named MirrorFace has started its attacks by spearphishing campaign with LODEINFO backdoor, targeting Japanese political entities since June 29, 2022 and this campaign operatio...

An Alleged Russian Smuggling Ring Was Uncovered in New Hampshire

Plus: An FBI platform got hacked, an ex-Twitter employee is sentenced for espionage, malicious Windows 10 installers circulate in Ukraine, and more...

Trojanized Windows 10 Installer Used in Cyberattacks Against Ukrainian Government Entities

Government entities in Ukraine have been breached as part of a new campaign that leveraged trojanized versions of Windows 10 installer files to conduct post-exploitation activities. Mandiant, which discovered the "socially engineered supply chain" attack around mid-July 2022, said the malicious I...

Ex-Twitter employee Gets 3.5 Years Jail for Spying on Behalf of Saudi Arabia

A former Twitter employee who was found guilty of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia by sharing data pertaining to specific individuals has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Ahmad Abouammo, 45, was convicted earlier this August on various criminal counts, including money launderin...

MuddyWater Hackers Target Asian and Middle East Countries with Updated Tactics

The Iran-linked MuddyWater threat actor has been observed targeting several countries in the Middle East as well as Central and West Asia as part of a new spear-phishing activity. "The campaign has been observed targeting Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan,...

BackdoorDiplomacy targets the telecom industry in the Middle East

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary BackdoorDiplomacy, an advanced persistent threat APT gang with roots in China, is most likely behind a hostile campaign targeting the Middle East. The espionage action, aimed at a Middle Eastern telecom...

Chinese Hackers Using Russo-Ukrainian War Decoys to Target APAC and European Entities

The China-linked nation-state hacking group referred to as Mustang Panda is using lures related to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War to attack entities in Europe and the Asia Pacific. That's according to the BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team, which analyzed a RAR archive file titled...

Chinese cyber espionage hackers target Southeast Asian firms

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary UNC4191, a threat actor with a suspected China affiliation, has been linked to a series of espionage assaults primarily in Southeast Asia that use USB sticks as an initial infection vector. A variety of...

North Korea Hackers Using New "Dolphin" Backdoor to Spy on South Korean Targets

The North Korea-linked ScarCruft group has been attributed to a previously undocumented backdoor called Dolphin that the threat actor has used against targets located in its southern counterpart. "The backdoor ... has a wide range of spying capabilities, including monitoring drives and portable...

Chinese Cyber Espionage Hackers Using USB Devices to Target Entities in Philippines

A threat actor with a suspected China nexus has been linked to a set of espionage attacks in the Philippines that primarily relies on USB devices as an initial infection vector. Mandiant, which is part of Google Cloud, is tracking the cluster under its uncategorized moniker UNC4191. An analysis o...

Bahamut Cyber Espionage Hackers Targeting Android Users with Fake VPN Apps

The cyber espionage group known as Bahamut has been attributed as behind a highly targeted campaign that infects users of Android devices with malicious apps designed to extract sensitive information. The activity, which has been active since January 2022, entails distributing rogue VPN apps...

Chinese APT Earth Preta runs spearphishing campaigns

Threat Level Actors Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary Earth Preta, an APT gang, staged a large-scale cyber espionage campaign in which the malware was transmitted via spear-phishing emails. The actors use various strategies to avoid detection and analysis,...

Billbug returns after two years to conduct an espionage campaign

Threat Level Actor Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary After being widely active in the year 2018-2019, Billbug, a Chinese state-sponsored group, is back after almost two years. They have been attacking multiple government agencies in an Asian country since...

Researchers Say China State-backed Hackers Breached a Digital Certificate Authority

A suspected Chinese state-sponsored actor breached a digital certificate authority as well as government and defense agencies located in different countries in Asia as part of an ongoing campaign since at least March 2022. Symantec, by Broadcom Software, linked the attacks to an adversarial group...

New "Earth Longzhi" APT Targets Ukraine and Asian Countries with Custom Cobalt Strike Loaders

Entities located in East and Southeast Asia as well as Ukraine have been targeted at least since 2020 by a previously undocumented subgroup of APT41, a prolific Chinese advanced persistent threat APT. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which christened the espionage crew Earth Longzhi, said the...

Experts Uncover Two Long-Running Android Spyware Campaigns Targeting Uyghurs

Two long-running surveillance campaigns have been found targeting the Uyghur community in China and elsewhere with Android spyware tools designed to harvest sensitive information and track their whereabouts. This encompasses a previously undocumented malware strain called BadBazaar and updated...

Microsoft Warns of Uptick in Hackers Leveraging Publicly-Disclosed 0-Day Vulnerabilities

Microsoft is warning of an uptick among nation-state and criminal actors increasingly leveraging publicly-disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities for breaching target environments. The tech giant, in its 114-page Digital Defense Report, said it has "observed a reduction in the time between the...

Researchers Detail New Malware Campaign Targeting Indian Government Employees

The Transparent Tribe threat actor has been linked to a new campaign aimed at Indian government organizations with trojanized versions of a two-factor authentication solution called Kavach. "This group abuses Google advertisements for the purpose of malvertising to distribute backdoored versions ...