Since October 22, 2024, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed Russian threat actor Midnight Blizzard sending a series of highly targeted spear-phishing emails to individuals in government, academia, defense, non-governmental organizations, and other sectors.
This activity is ongoing, and Microsoft will continue to investigate and provide updates as available. Based on our investigation of previous Midnight Blizzard spear-phishing campaigns, we assess that the goal of this operation is likely intelligence collection. Microsoft is releasing this blog to notify the public and disrupt this threat actor activity. This blog provides context on these external spear-phishing attempts, which are common attack techniques and do not represent any new compromise of Microsoft.
Read more…
Source: Microsoft
Related:
- ‘Keeper’ hacking group behind hacks at 570 online stores
July 7, 2020
A hacking group known as “Keeper” is responsible for security breaches at more than 570 online e-commerce portals over the last three years. The Keeper gang broke into online store backends, altered their source code, and inserted malicious scripts that logged payment card details entered by shoppers in checkout forms. These types of attacks are what the ...
- German authorities seize ‘BlueLeaks’ server that hosted data on US cops
July 7, 2020
German authorities have seized today a web server that hosted BlueLeaks, a website that provided access to internal documents stolen from US police departments. The server belonged to DDoSecrets (Distributed Denial of Secrets), an activist group that published the files last month, in mid-June. The server seizure was announced today by investigative journalist Emma Best, one of ...
- Purple Fox EK Adds Microsoft Exploits to Arsenal
July 6, 2020
The Purple Fox exploit kit (EK) has added two new exploits targeting critical- and high-severity Microsoft vulnerabilities to its bag of tricks – and researchers say they expect more attacks to be added in the future. The Purple Fox EK was previously analyzed in September, when researchers said that it appears to have been built to replace the Rig ...
- This is how EKANS ransomware is targeting industrial control systems
July 2, 2020
New samples of the EKANS ransomware have revealed how today’s cyberattackers are using a variety of methods to compromise key industrial companies. In a research report published on Wednesday, FortiGuard Labs researchers Ben Hunter and Fred Gutierrez said that malware designed to attack industrial control systems (ICS) continues to be lucrative for threat actors. While ransomware only accounted for ...
- Windows 10 background image tool can be abused to download malware
July 2, 2020
A binary in Windows 10 responsible for setting an image for the desktop and lock screen can help attackers download malware on a compromised system without raising the alarm. Known as living-off-the-land binaries (LoLBins), these files come with the operating system and have a legitimate purpose. Attackers of all colors are abusing them in post-exploitation phases ...
- TrickBot malware now checks screen resolution to evade analysis
July 1, 2020
The infamous TrickBot trojan has started to check the screen resolutions of victims to detect whether the malware is running in a virtual machine. When researchers analyze malware, they typically do it in a virtual machine that is configured with various analysis tools. Due to this, malware commonly uses anti-VM techniques to detect whether the malware is ...