MuddyWater, an Iranian threat group affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), is known to be active since at least 2017.
During the last year, MuddyWater engaged in widespread phishing campaigns targeting the Middle East, with a particular focus on Israel. Since October 2023, the actors’ activities have increased significantly. Their methods remain consistent, utilizing phishing campaigns sent from compromised email accounts targeting a wide array of organizations in countries of interest. These campaigns typically lead to the deployment of legitimate Remote Management Tools (RMM) such as Atera Agent or Screen Connect. Recently, however, they have deployed a custom backdoor Check Point researchers track as BugSleep.
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Source: Check Point
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