China revises Counter-Espionage Law, defining cyber-attacks against state organs as spy activities

The 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee passed an amendment to the Counter-Espionage Law on Wednesday. The revised law refines the definition of espionage activities, explicitly categorizing “collaborating with spy organizations and their agents” and “conducting cyber-attacks against state Read More …

Mantis: New Tooling Used in Attacks Against Palestinian Targets

The Mantis cyber-espionage group (aka Arid Viper, Desert Falcon, APT-C-23), a threat actor believed to be operating out of the Palestinian territories, is continuing to mount attacks, deploying a refreshed toolset and going to great lengths to maintain a persistent Read More …

APT43: North Korean Group Uses Cybercrime to Fund Espionage Operations

Mandiant researchers released a report on APT43, a prolific threat actor operating on behalf of the North Korean regime that they have observed engaging in cybercrime as a way to fund their espionage operations. According to Mandiant they track tons Read More …

China used stolen data to expose CIA operatives in Africa and Europe

Around 2013, U.S. intelligence began noticing an alarming pattern: Undercover CIA personnel, flying into countries in Africa and Europe for sensitive work, were being rapidly and successfully identified by Chinese intelligence, according to three former U.S. officials. The surveillance by Read More …

New malware variant has “radio silence” mode to evade detection

The Sharp Panda cyber-espionage hacking group is targeting high-profile government entities in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia with a new version of the ‘Soul’ malware framework. The particular malware was previously seen in espionage campaigns targeting critical Southeast Asian organizations, attributed Read More …

Clasiopa: New group targets materials research organization in Asia

A hitherto unknown attack group has been observed targeting a materials research organization in Asia. The group, which Symantec calls Clasiopa, is characterized by a distinct toolset, which includes one piece of custom malware (Backdoor.Atharvan). At present, there is no Read More …

Hydrochasma: Previously unknown group targets medical and shipping organizations in Asia

Shipping companies and medical laboratories in Asia are being targeted in a likely intelligence-gathering campaign that relies exclusively on publicly available and living-off-the-land tools. Hydrochasma, the threat actor behind this campaign, has not been linked to any previously identified group, Read More …

Earth Kitsune delivers new WhiskerSpy backdoor via watering hole attack

Trend Micro researchers discovered a new backdoor which Trend Micro have attributed to the advanced persistent threat actor known as Earth Kitsune, which they have covered before. Since 2019, Earth Kitsune has been distributing variants of self-developed backdoors to targets, Read More …

Fog of war: how the Ukraine conflict transformed the cyber threat landscape

Nearly one year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, and we continue to see cyber operations play a prominent role in the war. To provide more insights into the role of cyber, today, we are releasing our report Fog of War: How Read More …