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
Related:
- Department of Homeland Security email accounts exposed in SolarWinds hack
March 30, 2021
Email accounts belonging to US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials may have been compromised during the SolarWinds attack by Russian threat actors. The Associated Press reports that unauthorized intrusions occurred during the SolarWinds supply-chain attack. SolarWinds, the central point of entry, was compromised by threat actors in December who were able to plant a malicious Orion ...
- China takes aim at ‘spying’ Tesla cars, bans military staff use
March 22, 2021
Elon Musk has said Tesla would be “shut down” if accusations that the firm’s cars could be used for spying purposes were true. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese government has restricted the use of Tesla vehicles in military and key, state-owned company settings. Military and government staff are reportedly not permitted to ...
- SolarWinds-linked hacking group SilverFish abuses enterprise victims for sandbox tests
March 18, 2021
Cyberattackers involved in worldwide hacking campaigns are using the compromised systems of high-profile victims as playgrounds to test out malicious tool detection rates. On Thursday, Swiss cybersecurity firm Prodaft said that SilverFish (.PDF), an “extremely skilled” threat group, has been responsible for intrusions at over 4,720 private and government organizations including “Fortune 500 companies, ministries, airlines, ...
- Hackers are targeting telecoms companies to steal 5G secrets
March 16, 2021
A cyber-espionage campaign is targeting telecoms companies around the world with attacks using malicious downloads in an effort to steal sensitive data – including information about 5G technology – from compromised victims. Uncovered by cybersecurity researchers at McAfee, the campaign is targeting telecommunications providers in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. Dubbed Operation Diànxùn, researchers ...
- Supernova malware clues link Chinese threat group Spiral to SolarWinds server hacks
March 8, 2021
A possible link to China has been noted by researchers examining the exploit of SolarWinds servers to deploy malware. On Monday, Secureworks’ counter threat unit (CTU) said that during late 2020, a compromised Internet-facing SolarWinds server was used as a springboard to deploy Supernova, a .NET web shell. Similar intrusions on the same network suggest that the ...
- Microsoft reveals GoldMax, Sibot and GoldFinder new malware strains used by SolarWinds hackers
March 4, 2021
Microsoft has revealed information on newly found malware the SolarWinds hackers deployed on victims’ networks as second-stage payloads. The company now tracks the “sophisticated attacker” who used the Sunburst backdoor and Teardrop malware during the SolarWinds supply-chain attack as Nobelium. Security researchers with the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team found ...