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:
- Linux Variant of HelloKitty Ransomware Targets VMware ESXi Servers
July 16, 2021
For the first time, researchers have publicly spotted a Linux encryptor used by the HelloKitty ransomware gang: the outfit behind the February attack on videogame developer CD Projekt Red. On Wednesday, MalwareHunterTeam disclosed its discovery of numerous Linux ELF-64 versions of the HelloKitty ransomware targeting VMware ESXi servers and virtual machines (VMs) running on them. Read more… Source: ...
- US State Department offering $10 million reward for state-backed hackers
July 15, 2021
The State Department announced a $10 million reward for any information about hackers working for foreign governments. The measure is aimed squarely at those participating in “malicious cyber activities against US critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.” Officials said in a release that this included ransomware attacks targeting “critical infrastructure.” Read more… Source: ...
- LuminousMoth APT: Sweeping attacks for the chosen few
July 14, 2021
handpick a set of targets that in turn are handled with almost surgical precision, with infection vectors, malicious implants and payloads being tailored to the victims’ identities or environment. It’s not often we observe a large-scale attack conducted by actors fitting this profile, usually due to such attacks being noisy, and thus putting the underlying ...
- Cybercriminals took advantage of WFH to target financial services companies, says Financial Stability Board report
July 14, 2021
Criminals targeted security gaps at financial services firms as their staff moved to working from home, according to a report issued by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on Tuesday. Established after the G20 London summit in April 2009, the FSB makes recommendations about the global financial system and coordinates financial rules for the G20 group of ...
- Trickbot updates its VNC module for high-value targets
July 14, 2021
The Trickbot botnet malware that often distributes various ransomware strains, continues to be the most prevalent threat as its developers update the VNC module used for remote control over infected systems. Its activity has been increasing constantly since the complete disruption of the Emotet botnet in January, which acted as a distributor for both Trickbot and ...
- SonicWall releases urgent notice about ‘imminent’ ransomware targeting firmware
July 14, 2021
Networking device maker SonicWall sent out an urgent notice to its customers about “an imminent ransomware campaign using stolen credentials” that is targeting Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 series and Secure Remote Access (SRA) products running unpatched and end-of-life 8.x firmware. In addition to the notice posted to its website, SonicWall sent an email to anyone ...