- US defense and aerospace sectors targeted in new wave of North Korean attacks
July 30, 2020
Tracked under the codename of “Operation North Star,” McAfee said these attacks have been linked to infrastructure and TTPs (Techniques, Tactics, and Procedures) previously associated with Hidden Cobra — an umbrella term the US government uses to describe all North Korean state-sponsored hacking groups. As for the attacks themselves, McAfee said they were run-of-the-mill spear-phishing emails ...
- Lazarus on the hunt for big game
July 28, 2020
We may only be six months in, but there’s little doubt that 2020 will go down in history as a rather unpleasant year. In the field of cybersecurity, the collective hurt mostly crystallized around the increasing prevalence of targeted ransomware attacks. By investigating a number of these incidents and through discussions with some of our ...
- OilRig Targets Middle Eastern Telecom Organization and Adds Novel C2 Channel with Steganography to Its Inventory
July 22, 2020
While analyzing an attack against a Middle Eastern telecommunications organization, Unit 42 has discovered a variant of an OilRig-associated tool we call RDAT using a novel email-based command and control (C2) channel that relied on a technique known as steganography to hide commands and data within bitmap images attached to emails. In May 2020, Symantec published ...
- MATA: Multi-platform targeted malware framework
July 22, 2020
As the IT and OT environment becomes more complex, adversaries are quick to adapt their attack strategy. For example, as users’ work environments diversify, adversaries are busy acquiring the TTPs to infiltrate systems. Recently, we reported to our Threat Intelligence Portal customers a similar malware framework that internally we called MATA. The MATA malware framework ...
- Iranian cyberspies leave training videos exposed online
July 16, 2020
One of Iran’s top hacking groups has left a server exposed online where security researchers say they found a trove of screen recordings showing the hackers in action. Discovered by IBM’s X-Force cyber-security division, researchers believe the videos are tutorials the Iranian group was using to train new recruits. According to X-Force analysts, the videos were recorded ...
- Evilnum hackers use the same malware supplier as FIN6, Cobalt
July 9, 2020
Hackers in the Evilnum group have developed a toolset that combines custom malware, legitimate utilities, and tools bought from a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) provider that caters to big fintech threat actors. The group has been active since at least 2018 and focuses on companies from the financial technology sector that offer trading and investment platforms. Its targets are ...
- New Android Spyware Tools Emerge in Widespread Surveillance Campaign
July 1, 2020
Researchers have uncovered a surveillance campaign, dating back to at least 2013, which has used a slew of Android surveillanceware tools to spy on the Uyghur ethnic minority group. The campaign uses three never-before-seen Android surveillanceware tools, dubbed SilkBean, GoldenEagle and CarbonSteal, and one previously disclosed tool, DoubleAgent. The purpose of these tools is to gather and ...
- StrongPity APT Back with Kurdish-Aimed Watering Hole Attacks
June 30, 2020
he APT group known as StrongPity is back with a new watering-hole campaign, targeting mainly Kurdish victims in Turkey and Syria. The malware served offers operators the ability to search for and exfiltrate any file or document from a victim’s machine. The group (a.k.a. Promethium) is operating a series of bogus websites purporting to offer a ...
- Microcin is here
June 19, 2020
In February 2020, we observed a Trojan injected into the system process memory on a particular host. The target turned out to be a diplomatic entity. What initially attracted our attention was the enterprise-grade API-like (application programming interface) programming style. Such an approach is not that common in the malware world and is mostly used ...
- InvisiMole Group Resurfaces Touting Fresh Toolset, Gamaredon Partnership
June 18, 2020
The InvisiMole threat group has resurfaced in a new campaign, revealing a new toolset and a strategic collaboration with the high-profile Gamaredon advanced persistent threat (APT) group. InvisiMole was first uncovered by ESET in 2018, with cyberespionage activity dating back to 2013 in operations in Ukraine and Russia. More recently, from late 2019 until at least this month, researchers ...