Through the years of analyzing identity compromises in the cloud, Fortinet researchers have seen the same attackers pop up regularly, some more frequently than others. Among the more prolific ones they’ve come to know is one they’ve dubbed “EC2 Grouper”. Over the past couple of years, they’ve seen this actor in several dozen customer environments, making them one of the more active groups we’ve tracked.
This usual suspect is attributed by their penchant for using similar user agents and the same security group naming convention in their attacks. While indicators such as user agents and even security group names can assist in attribution and hunting, Fortinet have found them unreliable for comprehensive threat detection.
Read more…
Source: Fortinet
Related:
- Newly-Discovered Malware Targets Unpatched MacOS Flaw
June 25, 2019
Researchers have discovered never-before-seen Mac malware samples, which they believe are being developed to target a recently-disclosed vulnerability in the MacOS operating system. The vulnerability, a bypass that was disclosed in May and has yet to be patched by Apple, exists in the MacOS Gatekeeper security feature, which verifies downloaded applications before allowing them to run on Macs. ...
- Riltok mobile Trojan: A banker with global reach
June 25, 2019
Riltok is one of numerous families of mobile banking Trojans with standard (for such malware) functions and distribution methods. Originally intended to target the Russian audience, the banker was later adapted, with minimal modifications, for the European “market.” The bulk of its victims (more than 90%) reside in Russia, with France in second place (4%). ...
- Anonymous hacker exposed after dropping USB drive while throwing Molotov cocktail
June 24, 2019
In a bizarre investigation, Belgium police have identified a member of the Anonymous Belgium hacker collective while investigating an arson case at a local bank. The perpetrator, a 35-year-old man from the Belgian city of Roeselare, was initially arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Crelan Bank office in Rumbeke, a suburb of Roeselare, back ...
- Consumers Urged to Junk Insecure IoT Devices
June 18, 2019
More than 2 million connected security cameras, baby monitors and other IoT devices have serious vulnerabilities that have been publicly disclosed for more than two months – yet they are still without a patch or even any vendor response. Security researcher Paul Marrapese, who disclosed the flaws in April and has yet to hear back from any impacted ...
- Mobile Cyberespionage Campaign ‘Bouncing Golf’ Affects Middle East
June 18, 2019
We uncovered a cyberespionage campaign targeting Middle Eastern countries. We named this campaign “Bouncing Golf” based on the malware’s code in the package named “golf.” The malware involved, which Trend Micro detects as AndroidOS_GolfSpy.HRX, is notable for its wide range of cyberespionage capabilities. Malicious codes are embedded in apps that the operators repackaged from legitimate ...
- Plurox: Modular backdoor
June 18, 2019
In February this year, a curious backdoor passed across our virtual desk. The analysis showed the malware to have a few quite unpleasant features. It can spread itself over a local network via an exploit, provide access to the attacked network, and install miners and other malicious software on victim computers. What’s more, the backdoor ...

