Advanced Persistent Threat


NEWS 
  • New APT34 Malware Targets The Middle East

    February 2, 2023

    On December 2022, Trend Micro researchers identified a suspicious executable (detected by Trend Micro as Trojan.MSIL.REDCAP.AD) that was dropped and executed on multiple machines. The investigation led them to link this attack to advanced persistent threat (APT) group APT34, and the main goal is to steal users’ credentials. Even in case of a password reset ...

  • North Korean hackers stole research data in two-month-long breach

    February 2, 2023

    A new cyber espionage campaign dubbed ‘No Pineapple!’ has been attributed to the North Korean Lazarus hacking group, allowing the threat actors to stealthily steal 100GB of data from the victim without causing any destruction. The campaign lasted between August and November 2022, targeting organizations in medical research, healthcare, chemical engineering, energy, defense, and a leading ...

  • FBI Confirms Lazarus Group Cyber Actors Responsible for Harmony’s Horizon Bridge Currency Theft

    January 23, 2023

    The FBI continues to combat malicious cyber activity, including the threat posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the U.S. and our private sector partners. Through our investigation, we were able to confirm that the Lazarus Group (also known as APT38), cyber actors associated with the DPRK, are responsible for the theft ...

  • Chinese Playful Taurus Activity in Iran

    January 18, 2023

    Playful Taurus, also known as APT15, BackdoorDiplomacy, Vixen Panda, KeChang and NICKEL, is a Chinese advanced persistent threat group that routinely conducts cyber espionage campaigns. The group has been active since at least 2010 and has historically targeted government and diplomatic entities across North and South America, Africa and the Middle East. In June 2021, ESET ...

  • Earth Bogle: Campaigns Target the Middle East with Geopolitical Lures

    January 17, 2023

    While threat hunting, Trend Micro researchers found an active campaign using Middle Eastern geopolitical themes as a lure to target potential victims in the Middle East and Africa. In this campaign researchers have labeled Earth Bogle, the threat actor uses public cloud storage services such as files.fm and failiem.lv to host malware, while compromised web ...

  • Bluebottle: Campaign Hits Banks in French-speaking Countries in Africa

    January 5, 2023

    Bluebottle, a cyber-crime group that specializes in targeted attacks against the financial sector, is continuing to mount attacks on banks in Francophone countries. The group makes extensive use of living off the land, dual-use tools, and commodity malware, with no custom malware deployed in this campaign. The activity observed by Symantec, a division of Broadcom Software, ...

  • Russia’s Trident Ursa (aka Gamaredon APT) Cyber Conflict Operations Unwavering Since Invasion of Ukraine

    December 20, 2022

    Since Unit 42 last blog in early February covering the advanced persistent threat (APT) group Trident Ursa (aka Gamaredon, UAC-0010, Primitive Bear, Shuckworm), Ukraine and its cyber domain has faced ever-increasing threats from Russia. Trident Ursa is a group attributed by the Security Service of Ukraine to Russia’s Federal Security Service. As the conflict has continued ...

  • Iran-linked Charming Kitten espionage gang bares claws to pollies, power orgs

    December 15, 2022

    An Iranian cyber espionage gang with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has learned new methods and phishing techniques, and aimed them at a wider set of targets – including politicians, government officials, critical infrastructure and medical researchers – according to email security vendor Proofpoint. Over the past two years, the threat actor group that ...

  • Hackers target Japanese politicians with new MirrorStealer malware

    December 15, 2022

    A hacking group tracked as MirrorFace has been targeting Japanese politicians for weeks before the House of Councilors election in July 2022, using a previously undocumented credentials stealer named ‘MirrorStealer.’ The campaign was discovered by ESET, whose analysts report they could piece together evidence thanks to operational mistakes made by the hackers that left traces behind. The ...

  • DeathStalker targets legal entities with new Janicab variant

    December 8, 2022

    “Dosen’t matter how long you wait for the bus on a rainy day, X seconds was enough to get wet?” Just to clarify, the above subheading isn’t a normal quote, but a message that Janicab malware attempted to decode in its newest use of YouTube dead-drop resolvers (DDRs). While hunting for less common Deathstalker intrusions that use ...