Chinese Playful Taurus Activity in Iran

Playful Taurus, also known as APT15, BackdoorDiplomacy, Vixen Panda, KeChang and NICKEL, is a Chinese advanced persistent threat group that routinely conducts cyber espionage campaigns. The group has been active since at least 2010 and has historically targeted government and Read More …

Bluebottle: Campaign Hits Banks in French-speaking Countries in Africa

Bluebottle, a cyber-crime group that specializes in targeted attacks against the financial sector, is continuing to mount attacks on banks in Francophone countries. The group makes extensive use of living off the land, dual-use tools, and commodity malware, with no Read More …

Russia’s Trident Ursa (aka Gamaredon APT) Cyber Conflict Operations Unwavering Since Invasion of Ukraine

Since Unit 42 last blog in early February covering the advanced persistent threat (APT) group Trident Ursa (aka Gamaredon, UAC-0010, Primitive Bear, Shuckworm), Ukraine and its cyber domain has faced ever-increasing threats from Russia. Trident Ursa is a group attributed Read More …

Iran-linked Charming Kitten espionage gang bares claws to pollies, power orgs

An Iranian cyber espionage gang with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has learned new methods and phishing techniques, and aimed them at a wider set of targets – including politicians, government officials, critical infrastructure and medical researchers – Read More …

Hackers target Japanese politicians with new MirrorStealer malware

A hacking group tracked as MirrorFace has been targeting Japanese politicians for weeks before the House of Councilors election in July 2022, using a previously undocumented credentials stealer named ‘MirrorStealer.’ The campaign was discovered by ESET, whose analysts report they Read More …

DeathStalker targets legal entities with new Janicab variant

“Dosen’t matter how long you wait for the bus on a rainy day, X seconds was enough to get wet?” Just to clarify, the above subheading isn’t a normal quote, but a message that Janicab malware attempted to decode in Read More …

Internet Explorer 0-day exploited by North Korean actor APT37

To protect our users, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) routinely hunts for 0-day vulnerabilities exploited in-the-wild. This blog will describe a 0-day vulnerability, discovered by TAG in late October 2022, embedded in malicious documents and used to target users in Read More …

Always Another Secret: Lifting the Haze on China-nexus Espionage in Southeast Asia

Mandiant Managed Defense recently identified cyber espionage activity that heavily leverages USB devices as an initial infection vector and concentrates on the Philippines. Mandiant tracks this activity as UNC4191 and we assess it has a China nexus. UNC4191 operations have Read More …

New ransomware attacks in Ukraine linked to Russian Sandworm hackers

New ransomware attacks targeting organizations in Ukraine first detected this Monday have been linked to the notorious Russian military threat group Sandworm. Slovak software company ESET who first spotted this wave of attacks, says the ransomware they named RansomBoggs has Read More …