Hamas Linked Hackers Using AshTag Malware Against Diplomatic Offices

New report by Unit 42 reveals the Hamas-linked Ashen Lepus WIRTE group is using the AshTag malware suite to target Middle Eastern diplomatic and government entities with advanced, hidden tactics...

WIRTE Leverages AshenLoader Sideloading to Install the AshTag Espionage Backdoor

An advanced persistent threat APT known as WIRTE has been attributed to attacks targeting government and diplomatic entities across the Middle East with a previously undocumented malware suite dubbed AshTag since 2020. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 is tracking the activity cluster under the name Ash...

Yet Another Diminishing Spark: Low-Level Cyberattacks in the Israel-Gaza Conflict

We report empirical evidence of web defacement and DDoS attacks carried out by low-level cybercrime actors in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Our quantitative measurements indicate an immediate increase in such cyberattacks following the Hamas-led assault and the subsequent declaration of war. However,...

Hamas-Affiliated WIRTE Employs SameCoin Wiper in Disruptive Attacks Against Israel

A threat actor affiliated with Hamas has expanded its malicious cyber operations beyond espionage to carry out disruptive attacks that exclusively target Israeli entities. The activity, linked to a group called WIRTE , has also targeted the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and...

Inside Iran's Cyber Playbook: AI, Fake Hosting, and Psychological Warfare

U.S. and Israeli cybersecurity agencies have published a new advisory attributing an Iranian cyber group to targeting the 2024 Summer Olympics and compromising a French commercial dynamic display provider to show messages denouncing Israel's participation in the sporting event. The activity has...

OpenAI Blocks Iranian Influence Operation Using ChatGPT for U.S. Election Propaganda

OpenAI on Friday said it banned a set of accounts linked to what it said was an Iranian covert influence operation that leveraged ChatGPT to generate content that, among other things, focused on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. "This week we identified and took down a cluster of ChatGPT...

Arid Viper Launches Mobile Espionage Campaign with AridSpy Malware

The threat actor known as Arid Viper has been attributed to a mobile espionage campaign that leverages trojanized Android apps to deliver a spyware strain dubbed AridSpy. "The malware is distributed through dedicated websites impersonating various messaging apps, a job opportunity app, and a...

Microsoft Warns of Surge in Cyber Attacks Targeting Internet-Exposed OT Devices

Microsoft has emphasized the need for securing internet-exposed operational technology OT devices following a spate of cyber attacks targeting such environments since late 2023. "These repeated attacks against OT devices emphasize the crucial need to improve the security posture of OT devices and...

Exposed and vulnerable: Recent attacks highlight critical need to protect internet-exposed OT devices

Since late 2023, Microsoft has observed an increase in reports of attacks focusing on internet-exposed, poorly secured operational technology OT devices. Internet-exposed OT equipment in water and wastewater systems WWS in the US were targeted in multiple attacks over the past months by different...

U.S. Treasury Hamas Spokesperson for Cyber Influence Operations

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC on Friday announced sanctions against an official associated with Hamas for his involvement in cyber influence operations. Hudhayfa Samir 'Abdallah al-Kahlut, 39, also known as Abu Ubaida, has served as the public spokesperson o...

US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying

A closed-door presentation for House lawmakers late last year portrayed American anti-war protesters as having possible ties to Hamas in an effort to kill privacy reforms to a major US spy program...

Iran and Hezbollah Hackers Launch Attacks to Influence Israel-Hamas Narrative

Hackers backed by Iran and Hezbollah staged cyber attacks designed to undercut public support for the Israel-Hamas war after October 2023. This includes destructive attacks against key Israeli organizations, hack-and-leak operations targeting entities in Israel and the U.S., phishing campaigns...

Russian APT28 Hackers Targeting High-Value Orgs with NTLM Relay Attacks

Russian state-sponsored actors have staged NT LAN Manager NTLM v2 hash relay attacks through various methods from April 2022 to November 2023, targeting high-value targets worldwide. The attacks, attributed to an "aggressive" hacking crew called APT28, have set their eyes on organizations dealing...

Iran’s Mint Sandstorm APT Hits Universities with Hamas-Israel Phishing Scam

By Deeba Ahmed Bespoke Baits for Big Brains - Mint Sandstorm Deploys New Tactics to Infiltrate Universities. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Irans Mint Sandstorm APT Hits Universities with Hamas-Israel Phishing Scam...

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...

New Pierogi++ Malware by Gaza Cyber Gang Targeting Palestinian Entities

A pro-Hamas threat actor known as Gaza Cyber Gang is targeting Palestinian entities using an updated version of a backdoor dubbed Pierogi. The findings come from SentinelOne, which has given the malware the name Pierogi++ owing to the fact that it's implemented in the C++ programming language...

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...

Hamas-Linked Group Revives SysJoker Malware, Leverages OneDrive

By Waqas Hamas launches a new variant of Rust-based, multi-platform backdoor sysJoker against targets in Israel. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Hamas-Linked Group Revives SysJoker Malware, Leverages OneDrive...

Hamas-Linked Cyberattacks Using Rust-Powered SysJoker Backdoor Against Israel

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a Rust version of a cross-platform backdoor called SysJoker, which is assessed to have been used by a Hamas-affiliated threat actor to target Israel amid the ongoing war in the region. "Among the most prominent changes is the shift to Rust language,...

New BiBi-Windows Wiper Targets Windows Systems in Pro-Hamas Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have warned about a Windows version of a wiper malware that was previously observed targeting Linux systems in cyber attacks aimed at Israel. Dubbed BiBi-Windows Wiper by BlackBerry, the wiper is the Windows counterpart of BiBi-Linux Wiper, which has been put to use by a...