- Chinese APT suspected of supply chain attack on Mongolian government agencies
December 10, 2020
A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, also known as an APT, is suspected of having breached a Mongolian software company and compromised a chat app used by hundreds of Mongolian government agencies. The attack is believed to have taken place earlier this year, in June, according to a report published today by Slovak security firm ESET. The hackers ...
- FireEye reveals that it was hacked by a nation state APT group
December 9, 2020
Leading cybersecurity company FireEye disclosed today that it was hacked by a threat actor showing all the signs of a state-sponsored hacking group. The attackers were able to steal Red Team assessment tools FireEye uses to test customers’ security and designed to mimic tools used by many cyber threat actors. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- Norway: Russian APT28 state hackers likely behind Parliament attack
December 9, 2020
Russian-backed hacking group APT28 has likely brute-forced multiple Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) email accounts on August 24, 2020, according to the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST, short for Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste). Attackers gained access to a limited number of Stortinget email accounts of representatives and employees as disclosed by Stortinget director Marianne Andreassen. A statement published on the parliament’s ...
- NSA warns of Russian state-sponsored hackers exploiting VMWare vulnerability
December 7, 2020
The US National Security Agency has published a security alert today urging companies to update VMWare products for a vulnerability that is currently exploited by “Russian state-sponsored malicious cyber actors.” The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2020-4006, impacts VMWare endpoint and identity management products, often deployed in enterprise and government networks. The affected products, listed below, allow system administrators ...
- Rana Android Malware Updates Allow WhatsApp, Telegram IM Snooping
December 7, 2020
Researchers have discovered new samples of a previously discovered Android malware, which is believed to be linked to the APT39 Iranian cyberespionage threat group. The new variant comes with new surveillance capabilities – including the ability to snoop on victims’ Skype, Instagram and WhatsApp instant messages. According to U.S. feds, the developers of this malware are ...
- APT annual review: What the world’s threat actors got up to in 2020
December 3, 2020
Beyond Windows While Windows continues to be the main focus for APT threat actors, we have observed a number of non-Windows developments this year. Last year we reported a malware framework called MATA that we attribute to Lazarus. This framework included several components such as a loader, orchestrator and plug-ins. In April, we learned that MATA ...
- Cyberespionage APT group hides behind cryptomining campaigns
December 2, 2020
An advanced threat group called Bismuth recently used cryptocurrency mining as a way to hide the purpose of their activity and to avoid triggering high-priority alerts. Coin mining is typically regarded as a non-critical security issue, so the method allowed the actor to establish persistence and move laterally on the compromised network, at the same time ...
- Turla’s ‘Crutch’ Backdoor Leverages Dropbox in Espionage Attacks
December 2, 2020
Researchers have discovered a previously undocumented backdoor and document stealer, which they have linked to the Russian-speaking Turla advanced persistent threat (APT) espionage group. The malware, which researchers call “Crutch,” is able to bypass security measures by abusing legitimate tools – including the file-sharing service Dropbox – in order to hide behind normal network traffic. Researchers ...
- CISA: Advanced Persistent Threat Actors Targeting U.S. Think Tanks
December 1, 2020
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have observed persistent continued cyber intrusions by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors targeting U.S. think tanks. This malicious activity is often, but not exclusively, directed at individuals and organizations that focus on international affairs or national security policy. The following guidance ...
- New MacOS Backdoor Connected to OceanLotus Surfaces
November 27, 2020
Trend Micro researchers have recently discovered a new backdoor we believe to be related to the OceanLotus group. Some of the updates of this new variant (detected by Trend Micro as Backdoor.MacOS.OCEANLOTUS.F) include new behavior and domain names. As of writing, this sample is still undetected by other antimalware solutions. Due to similarities in dynamic behavior ...