- APT32 state hackers target human rights defenders with spyware
February 23, 2021
Vietnam-backed hacking group APT32 has coordinated several spyware attacks targeting Vietnamese human rights defenders (HRDs) between February 2018 and November 2020. The state hackers also pointed their attacks at a nonprofit (NPO) human rights organization from Vietnam, as Amnesty International’s Security Lab revealed (full report here). The spyware used by the APT32 hackers allowed them to read ...
- Accellion FTA Zero-Day Attacks Show Ties to Clop Ransomware, FIN11
February 22, 2021
Researchers have identified a set of threat actors (dubbed UNC2546 and UNC2582) with connections to the FIN11 and the Clop ransomware gang as the cybercriminal group behind the global zero-day attacks on users of the Accellion legacy File Transfer Appliance product. Multiple Accellion FTA customers, including the Jones Day Law Firm, Kroger and Singtel, have all ...
- Chinese hackers cloned attack tool belonging to NSA’s Equation Group
February 22, 2021
Chinese threat actors “cloned” and used a Windows zero-day exploit stolen from the NSA’s Equation Group for years before the privilege escalation flaw was patched, researchers say. On Monday, Check Point Research (CPR) said the tool was a “clone” of software developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA)’s Equation Group, identified by FireEye in 2015 ...
- IronNetInjector: Turla’s New Malware Loading Tool
February 19, 2021
In recent years, more and more ready-made malware is released on software development hosting sites available for everybody to use – including threat actors. This not only saves the bad guys development time, but also makes it much easier for them to find new ideas to prevent detection of their malware. Unit 42 researchers have found ...
- U.S. Accuses North Korean Hackers of Stealing Millions
February 17, 2021
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three North Korean computer programmers for their alleged participation in widespread, destructive cyberattacks as part of the advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Lazarus Group. The indictment broadens the scope of crimes that the DoJ has linked to Lazarus Group (and by extension, to North Korea). The feds also ...
- France links Russian Sandworm hackers to hosting provider attacks
February 15, 2021
The French national cyber-security agency has linked a series of attacks that resulted in the breach of multiple French IT providers over a span of four years to the Russian-backed Sandworm hacking group. ANSSI (short for Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information) has not been able to determine how the servers were compromised. Therefore, it ...
- Android spyware strains linked to state-sponsored Confucius threat group
February 11, 2021
Two variants of Android spyware connected to pro-India, state-sponsored hacking campaigns have been discovered. On Tuesday, cybersecurity firm Lookout said that two malware strains, dubbed Hornbill and SunBird, have been linked to Confucius, an advanced persistent threat (APT) group thought to be state-sponsored and to have pro-India ties. First detected in 2013, Confucius has been linked to ...
- BendyBear: Novel Chinese Shellcode Linked With Cyber Espionage Group BlackTech
February 9, 2021
Highly malleable, highly sophisticated and over 10,000 bytes of machine code. This is what Unit 42 researchers were met with during code analysis of this “bear” of a file. The code behavior and features strongly correlate with that of the WaterBear malware family, which has been active since as early as 2009. Analysis by Trend ...
- Hacking group also used an IE zero-day against security researchers
February 4, 2021
An Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability has been discovered used in recent North Korean attacks against security and vulnerability researchers. Last month, Google disclosed that the North Korean state-sponsored hacking group known as Lazarus was conducting social engineering attacks against security researchers. To perform their attacks, the threat actors created elaborate online ‘security researcher’ personas that would then ...
- CISA Issues Supply Chain Compromise Alert, Forms Coordination Group with Other Government Agencies
January 21, 2021
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently issued an alert regarding an advanced persistent threat (APT) compromising government agencies, critical infrastructures, and private sector organizations. According to CISA, the APT actor is accountable for the compromise of the SolarWinds Orion supply chain. The actor is also responsible for the abuse of commonly used authentication mechanisms. ...