Advanced Persistent Threat


NEWS 
  • Iranian hacking group targets Israel with wiper disguised as ransomware

    May 25, 2021

    An Iranian hacking group has been observed camouflaging destructive attacks against Israeli targets as ransomware attacks while maintaining access to victims’ networks for months in what looks like an extensive espionage campaign. The threat actor, tracked as Agrius by SentinelLabs researchers, has targeted Israel starting with December 2020. “Initially engaged in espionage activity, Agrius deployed a set ...

  • North Korean hackers behind CryptoCore multi-million dollar heists

    May 24, 2021

    Security researchers piecing together evidence from multiple attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges, attributed to a threat actor they named CryptoCore have established a strong connection to the North Korean state-sponsored group Lazarus. The group is believed to have stolen hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars by breaching cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S., Israel, Europe, and Japan over ...

  • Russian state hackers switch targets after US joint advisories

    May 7, 2021

    Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) operators have switched their attacks to target new vulnerabilities in reaction to US govt advisories published last month with info on SVR tactics, tools, techniques, and capabilities used in ongoing attacks. The warning comes after US and UK governments formally attributed the SolarWinds supply-chain attack and COVID-19 vaccine developer targeting to Russian SVR ...

  • Operation TunnelSnake

    May 6, 2021

    Formerly unknown rootkit used to secretly control networks of regional organizations Windows rootkits, especially those operating in kernel space, are pieces of malware infamous for their near absolute power in the operating system. Usually deployed as drivers, such implants have high privileges in the system, allowing them to intercept and potentially tamper with core I/O operations ...

  • The UNC2529 Triple Double: A Trifecta Phishing Campaign

    May 4, 2021

    In December 2020, Mandiant observed a widespread, global phishing campaign targeting numerous organizations across an array of industries. Mandiant tracks this threat actor as UNC2529. Based on the considerable infrastructure employed, tailored phishing lures and the professionally coded sophistication of the malware, this threat actor appears experienced and well resourced. This blog post will discuss the ...

  • UNC2447 SOMBRAT and FIVEHANDS Ransomware: A Sophisticated Financial Threat

    April 29, 2021

    Mandiant has observed an aggressive financially motivated group, UNC2447, exploiting one SonicWall VPN zero-day vulnerability prior to a patch being available and deploying sophisticated malware previously reported by other vendors as SOMBRAT. Mandiant has linked the use of SOMBRAT to the deployment of ransomware, which has not been previously reported publicly. UNC2447 monetizes intrusions by extorting ...

  • Cyberspies target military organizations with new Nebulae backdoor

    April 28, 2021

    A Chinese-speaking threat actor has deployed a new backdoor in multiple cyber-espionage operations spanning roughly two years and targeting military organizations from Southeast Asia. For at least a decade, the hacking group known as Naikon has actively spied on organizations in countries around the South China Sea, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand, for ...

  • Ghostwriter Update: Cyber Espionage Group UNC1151 Likely Conducts Ghostwriter Influence Activity

    April 28, 2021

    In July 2020, Mandiant Threat Intelligence released a public report detailing an ongoing influence campaign we named “Ghostwriter.” Ghostwriter is a cyber-enabled influence campaign which primarily targets audiences in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland and promotes narratives critical of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) presence in Eastern Europe. Since releasing our public report, we have ...

  • APT trends report Q1 2021

    April 27, 2021

    For four years, the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky has been publishing quarterly summaries of advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. The summaries are based on our threat intelligence research and provide a representative snapshot of what we have published and discussed in greater detail in our private APT reports. They are designed ...

  • Lazarus hacking group now hides payloads in BMP image files

    April 20, 2021

    The Lazarus group has tweaked its loader obfuscation techniques by abusing image files in a recent phishing campaign. Lazarus is a state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group from North Korea. Known as one of the most prolific and sophisticated APTs out there, Lazarus has been in operation for over a decade and is considered responsible for worldwide ...