Frozen in transit: Secret Blizzard’s AiTM campaign against diplomats


Microsoft Threat Intelligence has uncovered a cyberespionage campaign by the Russian state actor we track as Secret Blizzard that has been targeting embassies located in Moscow using an adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) position to deploy their custom ApolloShadow malware.

ApolloShadow has the capability to install a trusted root certificate to trick devices into trusting malicious actor-controlled sites, enabling Secret Blizzard to maintain persistence on diplomatic devices, likely for intelligence collection. This campaign, which has been ongoing since at least 2024, poses a high risk to foreign embassies, diplomatic entities, and other sensitive organizations operating in Moscow, particularly to those entities who rely on local internet providers.

Read more…
Source: Microsoft


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • U.S. Government Agency Targeted With Malware-Laced Emails

    January 23, 2020

    A U.S. government agency was targeted with spear phishing emails harboring several malware strains – including a never-before-seen malware downloader that researchers call “Carrotball.” The campaign, which researchers observed occurring from July to October and code-named “Fractured Statue,” involved six unique malicious document lures being sent as attachments from four different Russian email addresses to 10 ...

  • Shlayer Trojan attacks one in ten macOS users

    January 23, 2020

    For close to two years now, the Shlayer Trojan has been the most common threat on the macOS platform: in 2019, one in ten of our Mac security solutions encountered this malware at least once, and it accounts for almost 30% of all detections for this OS. The first specimens of this family fell into ...

  • European Energy Sector Organization Targeted by PupyRAT Malware in Late 2019

    January 23, 2020

    Over the course of the last year, Recorded Future research has demonstrated that Iran-nexus groups, possibly including APT33 (also called Elfin), have been prolific in amassing operational network infrastructure throughout 2019. Additionally, in November 2019, Microsoft disclosed that APT33 had shifted focus from targeting IT networks to physical control systems used in electric utilities, manufacturing, and oil refineries. We ...

  • Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince’

    January 22, 2020

    The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian. The encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated ...

  • Microsoft discovers new sLoad 2.0 (Starslord) malware

    January 21, 2020

    After thoroughly having its secrets laid bare last month in a Microsoft exposé report, the operators of the sLoad malware have put into circulation a revamped 2.0 version earlier this month. This new sLoad version (also known as Starslord) doesn’t change much, but the fact that the sLoad gang shipped a new version in less than a ...

  • Windows EFS Feature May Help Ransomware Attackers

    January 21, 2020

    Security researchers have created concept ransomware that takes advantage of a feature in Windows that encrypts files and folders to protect them from unauthorized physical access to the computer. The lab-developed ransomware strain relies on the Encrypting File System (EFS) component in Microsoft’s operating system and can run undetected by some antivirus software. EFS allows users to ...