Evil Corp Cybercrime Group Shifts to LockBit Ransomware to Evade Sanctions

The threat cluster dubbed UNC2165, which shares numerous overlaps with a Russia-based cybercrime group known as Evil Corp, has been linked to multiple LockBit ransomware intrusions in what's seen as an attempt by the latter to get around sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury in December 2019...

Growling Bears Make Thunderous Noise

Growling Bears Make Thunderous Noise By Trellix · June 6, 2022 Per public attribution, Russian cybercriminal groups have always been active. Their tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs have not significantly evolved over time, although some changes have been observed. Lately, the threat...

How the Saitama backdoor uses DNS tunnelling

Thanks to the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence Team for the information they provided for this article. Understandably, a lot of cybersecurity research and commentary focuses on the act of breaking into computers undetected. But threat actors are often just as concerned with the act of breaking o...

Chinese "Twisted Panda" Hackers Caught Spying on Russian Defense Institutes

At least two research institutes located in Russia and a third likely target in Belarus have been at the receiving end of an espionage attack by a Chinese nation-state advanced persistent threat APT. The attacks, codenamed "Twisted Panda," come in the backdrop of Russia's military invasion of...

OilRig is back with another Phishing Email attack, delivering the Saitama Backdoor

THREAT LEVEL: Amber. For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here An Iranian cyber espionage gang known as OilRig has began delivering malicious email to a Jordanian government employee at the foreign ministry. The email includes a malicious Excel sheet that installs the Saitama backdoor...

New Saitama backdoor Targeted Official from Jordan's Foreign Ministry

A spear-phishing campaign targeting Jordan's foreign ministry has been observed dropping a new stealthy backdoor dubbed Saitama. Researchers from Malwarebytes and Fortinet FortiGuard Labs attributed the campaign to an Iranian cyber espionage threat actor tracked under the moniker APT34, citing...

Bitter APT Hackers Add Bangladesh to Their List of Targets in South Asia

An espionage-focused threat actor known for targeting China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia has expanded to set its sights on Bangladeshi government organizations as part of an ongoing campaign that commenced in August 2021. Cybersecurity firm Cisco Talos attributed the activity with moderate...

Experts Uncover New Espionage Attacks by Chinese 'Mustang Panda' Hackers

The China-based threat actor known as Mustang Panda has been observed refining and retooling its tactics and malware to strike entities located in Asia, the European Union, Russia, and the U.S. "Mustang Panda is a highly motivated APT group relying primarily on the use of topical lures and social...

Ukraine War Themed Files Become the Lure of Choice for a Wide Range of Hackers

A growing number of threat actors are using the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war as a lure in various phishing and malware campaigns, even as critical infrastructure entities continue to be heavily targeted. "Government-backed actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as various...

Chinese "Override Panda" Hackers Resurface With New Espionage Attacks

A Chinese state-sponsored espionage group known as Override Panda has resurfaced in recent weeks with a new phishing attack with the goal of stealing sensitive information. "The Chinese APT used a spear-phishing email to deliver a beacon of a Red Team framework known as 'Viper,'" Cluster25 said i...

Microsoft Issues Report of Russian Cyberattacks against Ukraine

Microsoft has a comprehensive report on the dozens of cyberattacks -- and even more espionage operations -- Russia has conducted against Ukraine as part of this war: At least six Russian Advanced Persistent Threat APT actors and other unattributed threats, have conducted destructive attacks,...

Chinese Hackers Targeting Russian Military Personnel with Updated PlugX Malware

A China-linked government-sponsored threat actor observed striking European diplomatic entities in March may have been targeting Russian government officials with an updated version of a remote access trojan called PlugX. Secureworks attributed the attempted intrusions to a threat actor it tracks...

Newly patched VMware vulnerability exploited by Iranian espionage group, Rocket Kitten

THREAT LEVEL: Red. For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here An Iranian cyber espionage gang known as Rocket Kitten has began delivering the Core Impact penetration testing tool on susceptible computers by exploiting a newly fixed severe vulnerability in VMware Workspace ONE...

Nation-state Hackers Target Journalists with Goldbackdoor Malware

Sophisticated hackers believed to be tied to the North Korean government are actively targeting journalists with novel malware dubbed Goldbackdoor. Attacks have consisted of multistage infection campaign with the ultimate goal of stealing sensitive information from targets. The campaign is believ...

North Korean Hackers Target Journalists with GOLDBACKDOOR Malware

A state-backed threat actor with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DRPK has been attributed to a spear-phishing campaign targeting journalists covering the country with the ultimate goal of deploying a backdoor on infected Windows systems. The intrusions, said to be the work of...

Long Article on NSO Group

Ronan Farrow has a long article in the New Yorker on NSO Group, which includes the news that someone -- probably Spain -- used the software to spy on domestic Catalonian separatists...

New Hacking Campaign Targeting Ukrainian Government with IcedID Malware

The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine CERT-UA has warned of a new wave of social engineering campaigns delivering IcedID malware and leveraging Zimbra exploits with the goal of stealing sensitive information. Attributing the IcedID phishing attacks to a threat cluster named UAC-0041, th...

Attacks on European Union and Ukrainian government entities carried out by the Armageddon group

THREAT LEVEL: Red. For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine CERT-UA has issued an alert warning of an ongoing spear-phishing attempt aimed at delivering an email with a malware attachment to Ukrainian government institutions and European...

APT 10, a state-sponsored Chinese threat group, conducting a global cyber espionage operation

THREAT LEVEL: Red. For a detailed advisory, download the pdf file here A Chinese state-sponsored advanced persistent threat APT 10 group has been attacking government, legal, religious entities and non-governmental organizations NGOs around the world in what appears to be an espionage campaign th...

Chinese Hacker Groups Continue to Target Indian Power Grid Assets

China-linked adversaries have been attributed to an ongoing onslaught against Indian power grid organizations, one year after a concerted campaign targeting critical infrastructure in the country came to light. Most of the intrusions involved a modular backdoor named ShadowPad, according to...