SugarGh0st RAT Used to Target American Artificial Intelligence Experts


Proofpoint recently identified a SugarGh0st RAT campaign targeting organizations in the United States involved in artificial intelligence efforts, including those in academia, private industry, and government service.

Proofpoint tracks the cluster responsible for this activity as UNK_SweetSpecter. SugarGh0st RAT is a remote access trojan, and is a customized variant of Gh0stRAT, an older commodity trojan typically used by Chinese-speaking threat actors. SugarGh0st RAT has been historically used to target users in Central and East Asia, as first reported by Cisco Talos in November 2023.

Read more…
Source: ProofPoint


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Shuckworm Continues Cyber-Espionage Attacks Against Ukraine

    January 31, 2022

    he Russia-linked Shuckworm group (aka Gamaredon, Armageddon) is continuing to conduct cyber-espionage attacks against targets in Ukraine. Over the course of recent months, Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team, a part of Broadcom Software, has found evidence of attempted attacks against a number of organizations in the country. Active since at least 2013, Shuckworm specializes in cyber-espionage campaigns ...

  • Lazarus APT Uses Windows Update to Spew Malware

    January 28, 2022

    Lazarus Group is using Windows Update to spray malware in a campaign powered by a GitHub command-and-control (C2) server, researchers have found. On Thursday, the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team reported that they discovered the North Korean state advanced persistent threat (APT) group’s latest living-off-the-land technique while analyzing a spear-phishing campaign that its researchers discovered 10 days ...

  • German govt warns of APT27 hackers backdooring business networks

    January 26, 2022

    The BfV German domestic intelligence services (short for Bun­des­amt für Ver­fas­sungs­schutz) warn of ongoing attacks coordinated by the APT27 Chinese-backed hacking group. This active campaign is targeting German commercial organizations, with the attackers using the HyperBro remote access trojans (RAT) to backdoor their networks. HyperBro helps the threat actors maintain persistence on the victims’ networks by acting ...

  • DazzleSpy: Pro-democracy org hijacked to become macOS spyware distributor

    January 26, 2022

    Researchers have uncovered a new strain of macOS malware in targeted attacks against visitors to a Hong Kong pro-democracy radio station website. The website was used to facilitate a watering hole attack and to serve a Safari browser exploit to visitors, leading to the deployment and execution of spyware on victim machines. Dubbed DazzleSpy by ESET researchers, ...

  • TianySpy Malware Uses Smishing Disguised as Message From Telco

    January 25, 2022

    It has been some time since SMS or text messaging has become a means to spread mobile malware. In September 2021, Trend Micro confirmed a new mobile malware infection chain targeting both Android and iPhone devices. The chain is triggered by a smishing message that appears to be sent from a telecommunications company. It is ...

  • Trellix finds OneDrive malware targeting government officials in Western Asia

    January 25, 2022

    Hackers are using Microsoft OneDrive in a multi-stage espionage campaign aimed at high-ranking government officials in Western Asia, according to a new report from Trellix. Researchers with Trellix named the malware involved “Graphite” because it uses Microsoft’s Graph API to leverage OneDrive as a command and control server. The attack takes advantage of an MSHTML remote ...