Advanced Persistent Threat


NEWS 
  • Uncommon infection and malware propagation methods

    October 5, 2022

    Kaspersky researchers are often asked how targets are infected with malware. Their answer is nearly always the same: (spear) phishing. There will be exceptions, naturally, as they will encounter RCE vulnerabilities every now and then, or if the attacker is already on the network, they will use tools like PsExec. But that’s it — most ...

  • NSA, CISA, FBI Warn of Custom Exfiltration Tools Being Used Against Defense Industrial Base Organization

    October 4, 2022

    FORT MEADE, Md. — The National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the FBI released a Cybersecurity Advisory today that details the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) that likely multiple advanced persistent threat (APT) groups recently used to steal sensitive information from a Defense Industrial Base organization. The advisory, “Impacket, ...

  • Tracking Earth Aughisky’s Malware and Changes

    October 4, 2022

    For security researchers and analysts monitoring advanced persistent threat (APT) groups’ attacks and tools, Earth Aughisky (also known as Taidoor) is among the more active units that consistently make security teams vigilant. Over the last decade, the group has continued to make adjustments in the tools and malware deployments on specific targets located in Taiwan ...

  • Lazarus hackers abuse Dell driver bug using new FudModule rootkit

    October 1, 2022

    The notorious North Korean hacking group ‘Lazarus’ was seen installing a Windows rootkit that abuses a Dell hardware driver in a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver attack. The spear-phishing campaign unfolded in the autumn of 2021, and the confirmed targets include an aerospace expert in the Netherlands and a political journalist in Belgium. According to ESET, which ...

  • Witchetty: Group Uses Updated Toolset in Attacks on Governments in Middle East

    September 29, 2022

    The Witchetty espionage group (aka LookingFrog) has been progressively updating its toolset, using new malware in attacks on targets in the Middle East and Africa. Among the new tools being used by the group is a backdoor Trojan (Backdoor.Stegmap) that employs steganography, a rarely seen technique where malicious code is hidden within an image. In attacks ...

  • New hacking group ‘Metador’ lurking in ISP networks for months

    September 25, 2022

    A previously unknown threat actor that researchers have named ‘Metador’ has been breaching telecommunications, internet services providers (ISPs), and universities for about two years. Metador targets organizations in the Middle East and Africa and their purpose appears to be long-term persistence for espionage. The group uses two Windows-based malware that have been described as “extremely complex” ...

  • Control System Defense: Know the Opponent

    September 22, 2022

    Operational technology/industrial control system (OT/ICS) assets that operate, control, and monitor day-to-day critical infrastructure and industrial processes continue to be an attractive target for malicious cyber actors. These cyber actors, including advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, target OT/ICS assets to achieve political gains, economic advantages, or destructive effects. Because OT/ICS systems physical operational processes, cyber ...

  • Russian Sandworm hackers pose as Ukrainian telcos to drop malware

    September 19, 2022

    The Russian state-sponsored hacking group known as Sandworm has been observed masquerading as telecommunication providers to target Ukrainian entities with malware. Sandworm is a state-backed threat actor attributed by the US government as part of the Russian GRU foreign military intelligence service. The APT hacking group is believed to have been behind numerous attacks this year, including ...

  • Webworm: Espionage Attackers Testing and Using Older Modified RATs

    September 15, 2022

    Symantec, by Broadcom Software, has gained insight into the current activities of a group we call Webworm. The group has developed customized versions of three older remote access Trojans (RATs), including Trochilus, Gh0st RAT, and 9002 RAT. At least one of the indicators of compromise (IOCs) observed by Symantec was used in an attack against ...

  • Gamaredon APT targets Ukrainian government agencies in new campaign

    September 15, 2022

    Cisco Talos discovered Gamaredon APT activity targeting users in Ukraine with malicious LNK files distributed in RAR archives. The campaign, part of an ongoing espionage operation observed as recently as August 2022, aims to deliver information-stealing malware to Ukrainian victim machines and makes heavy use of multiple modular PowerShell and VBScript (VBS) scripts as part ...