- Cyclops Blink Sets Sights on Asus Routers
March 18, 2022
Cyclops Blink, an advanced modular botnet that is reportedly linked to the Sandworm or Voodoo Bear advanced persistent threat (APT) group, has recently been used to target WatchGuard Firebox devices according to an analysis performed by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Trend Micro researchers acquired a variant of the Cyclops Blink malware family that ...
- Exotic Lily: Exposing initial access broker with ties to Conti
March 18, 2022
In early September 2021, Threat Analysis Group (TAG) observed a financially motivated threat actor we refer to as EXOTIC LILY, exploiting a 0day in Microsoft MSHTML (CVE-2021-40444). Investigating this group’s activity, we determined they are an Initial Access Broker (IAB) who appear to be working with the Russian cyber crime gang known as FIN12 (Mandiant, ...
- Does This Look Infected? A Summary of APT41 Targeting U.S. State Governments
March 8, 2022
UPDATE: The original post may not have provided full clarity that CVE-2021-44207 (USAHerds) had a patch developed by Acclaim Systems for applicable deployments on or around Nov. 15, 2021. Mandiant cannot speak to the affected builds, deployment, adoption, or other technical factors of this vulnerability patch beyond its availability. In May 2021 Mandiant responded to an APT41 intrusion ...
- A free-for-all but no crippling cyberattacks in Ukraine war
March 1, 2022
Russia has some of the best hackers in the world, but in the early days of the war in Ukraine, its ability to create mayhem through malware hasn’t had much of a noticeable impact. Instead, it’s Ukraine that’s marshalled sympathetic volunteer hackers in an unprecedented collective global effort to make the Kremlin pay for making war ...
- Daxin: Stealthy Backdoor Designed for Attacks Against Hardened Networks
February 28, 2022
New research by the Symantec Threat Hunter team, part of Broadcom Software, has uncovered a highly sophisticated piece of malware being used by China-linked threat actors, exhibiting technical complexity previously unseen by such actors. The malware appears to be used in a long-running espionage campaign against select governments and other critical infrastructure targets. There is strong ...
- Ransomware groups and hacktivist collective are getting involved in the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia
February 25, 2022
Multiple ransomware groups and members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous announced this week that they are getting involved in the military conflict between Ukraine and Russia. On Thursday, members of Anonymous announced on Twitter that they would be launching attacks against the Russian government. The hacktivists defaced some local government websites in Russia and temporarily took ...
- Iranian Government-Sponsored Actors Conduct Cyber Operations Against Global Government and Commercial Networks
February 24, 2022
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. Cyber Command Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) have observed a group of Iranian government-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actors, known as MuddyWater, conducting cyber espionage and other malicious cyber operations targeting ...
- Russian State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Target Cleared Defense Contractor Networks to Obtain Sensitive U.S. Defense Information and Technology
February 16, 2022
From at least January 2020, through February 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have observed regular targeting of U.S. cleared defense contractors (CDCs) by Russian state-sponsored cyber actors. The actors have targeted both large and small CDCs and subcontractors with varying levels of ...
- Red Cross: State hackers breached our network using Zoho bug
February 16, 2022
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today that the hack disclosed last month against its servers was a targeted attack likely coordinated by a state-backed hacking group. During the incident, the attackers gained access to the personal information (names, locations, and contact information) of over 515,000 people in the “Restoring Family Links” program ...
- Suspected espionage in Palestine highlights spread of hacking skills
February 16, 2022
A wave of recent espionage activity from suspected Palestinian hackers is the latest evidence that wealthy spy agencies no longer are the sole operators of malware that covertly vacuums up victims’ data. A shadowy group has targeted governments in the Middle East, a state-affiliated airline and foreign policy think tanks as part of a “highly targeted” ...

