A Russian threat actor Palo Alto Unit 42 track as Fighting Ursa advertised a car for sale as a lure to distribute HeadLace backdoor malware. The campaign likely targeted diplomats and began as early as March 2024.
Fighting Ursa (aka APT28, Fancy Bear and Sofacy) has been associated with Russian military intelligence and classified as an advanced persistent threat (APT). Diplomatic-car-for-sale phishing lure themes have been used by Russian threat actors for years. These lures tend to resonate with diplomats and get targets to click on the malicious content.
Read more…
Source: Palo Alto
Related:
- Spyware startup Variston is losing staff – some say it’s closing
February 15, 2024
In July 2022, someone sent Google a batch of malicious code that could be used to hack Chrome, Firefox, and PCs running Microsoft Defender. That code was part of an exploitation framework called Heliconia. And at the time, the exploits used to target those applications were zero-days, meaning the software makers were unaware of the bugs, ...
- Hackers uncover new TheTruthSpy stalkerware victims
February 12, 2024
A consumer-grade spyware operation called TheTruthSpy poses an ongoing security and privacy risk to thousands of people whose Android devices are unknowingly compromised with its mobile surveillance apps, not least due to a simple security flaw that its operators never fixed. Now, two hacking groups have independently found the flaw that allows the mass access of ...
- Buying Spying: How the commercial surveillance industry works and what can be done about it
February 6, 2024
Private sector firms have been involved in discovering and selling exploits for many years, but there is a rise in turnkey espionage solutions. Commercial Surveillance Vendors (CSVs) offer pay-to-play tools that bundle an exploit chain designed to get past security measures, along with the spyware and the necessary infrastructure, in order to collect the desired data ...
- Scaly Wolf uses White Snake stealer against Russian industry
February 2, 2024
The BI.ZONE Threat Intelligence team has identified at least a dozen campaigns linked to Scaly Wolf. The impact spreads across organizations from various industries in Russia, including manufacturing and logistics. One of the group’s characteristics in gaining initial access is their phishing emails designed to look like legitimate correspondence from Russian public authorities. Its phishing arsenal ...
- US imposes fresh sanctions over Iranian arms, cyber activity
February 2, 2024
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions targeting Iran’s ballistic missile and drone procurement programmes as well as officials it said were involved in hacking US infrastructure, as Washington looks to increase pressure on Tehran. The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Friday it had imposed sanctions on four Iran- and Hong Kong-based companies ...
- Former CIA employee sentenced to 40 years in prison after carrying out largest data leak in agency’s history
February 1, 2024
A former CIA employee was sentenced to 40 years in prison after carrying out the largest data leak in the agency’s history, the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York announced Thursday. Joshua Schulte – who was accused of handing over reams of classified data to WikiLeaks in 2016 – was convicted in ...