Star Blizzard’s new spear-phishing campaign, while novel in that it uses and targets WhatsApp for the first time, exhibits familiar spear-phishing TTPs for Star Blizzard, with the threat actor initiating email contact with their targets, to engage them, before sending them a second message containing a malicious link.
The sender address used by the threat actor in this campaign impersonates a US government official, continuing Star Blizzard’s practice of impersonating known political/diplomatic figures, to further ensure target engagement. The initial email sent to targets contains a quick response (QR) code purporting to direct users to join a WhatsApp group on “the latest non-governmental initiatives aimed at supporting Ukraine NGOs.”
Read more…
Source: Microsoft
Related:
- CISA, NSA, and ODNI Release Part One of Guidance on Securing the Software Supply Chain
September 2, 2022
CISA, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), have published part one of a three-part joint publication series, Securing Software Supply Chain Series – Recommended Practices for Developers. This guidance—created by the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), a public-private cross-sector working group led by the NSA and CISA—focuses ...
- FBI issues warning after crypto-crooks steal $1.3 billion in just three months
September 1, 2022
Amid a wave of hacks that have cost investors billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency, the FBI is calling on decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms to improve their security. In a warning posted on its website, the FBI said that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting DeFi platforms to steal cryptocurrency, often exploiting vulnerabilities in smart contracts to part ...
- Oh no, that James Webb Space Telescope snap might actually contain malware
September 1, 2022
Scumbags are using a photo from the James Webb Space Telescope to smuggle Windows malware onto victims’ computers – albeit in a roundabout way. The malicious code, written in Go, is hidden in a .jpeg of the stunning first proper image taken by the recently deployed spacecraft. More specifically, the obfuscated code is Base64-encoded and included in ...
- New ransomware hits Windows, Linux servers of Chile government agency
September 1, 2022
Chile’s national computer security and incident response team (CSIRT) has announced that a ransomware attack has impacted operations and online services of a government agency in the country. The attack started on Thursday, August 25, targeting Microsoft and VMware ESXi servers operated by the agency. The hackers stopped all running virtual machines and encrypted their files, appending ...
- Montenegro hit by ransomware attack, hackers demand $10 million
September 1, 2022
The government of Montenegro has provided more information about the attack on its critical infrastructure saying that ransomware is responsible for the damage and disruptions. Public Administration Minister Maras Dukaj stated on local television yesterday that behind the attack is an organized cybercrime group. The effects of the incindet continue for the tenth day. The minister added ...
- Vulnerability in TikTok Android app could lead to one-click account hijacking
August 31, 2022
Microsoft discovered a high-severity vulnerability in the TikTok Android application, which could have allowed attackers to compromise users’ accounts with a single click. The vulnerability, which would have required several issues to be chained together to exploit, has been fixed and Microsoft did not locate any evidence of in-the-wild exploitation. Attackers could have leveraged the ...

