TetrisPhantom: Cyber Espionage via Secure USBs Targets APAC Governments

Government entities in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are the target of a long-running cyber espionage campaign dubbed TetrisPhantom. "The attacker covertly spied on and harvested sensitive data from APAC government entities by exploiting a particular type of secure USB drive, protected by hardware encryption to ensure the secure storage and transfer of data between computer systems," Kaspersky 

Guyana Governmental Entity Hit by DinodasRAT in Cyber Espionage Attack

A governmental entity in Guyana has been targeted as part of a cyber espionage campaign dubbed Operation Jacana. The activity, which was detected by ESET in February 2023, entailed a spear-phishing attack that led to the deployment of a hitherto undocumented implant written in C++ called DinodasRAT. The Slovak cybersecurity firm said it could link the intrusion to a known threat actor or group,

Lazarus Group Impersonates Recruiter from Meta to Target Spanish Aerospace Firm

The North Korea-linked Lazarus Group has been linked to a cyber espionage attack targeting an unnamed aerospace company in Spain in which employees of the firm were approached by the threat actor posing as a recruiter for Meta. "Employees of the targeted company were contacted by a fake recruiter via LinkedIn and tricked into opening a malicious executable file presenting itself as a coding

Chinese Hackers TAG-74 Targets South Korean Organizations in a Multi-Year Campaign

A "multi-year" Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage campaign has been observed targeting South Korean academic, political, and government organizations. Recorded Future's Insikt Group, which is tracking the activity under the moniker TAG-74, said the adversary has been linked to "Chinese military intelligence and poses a significant threat to academic, aerospace and defense, government,

From Watering Hole to Spyware: EvilBamboo Targets Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Taiwanese

Tibetan, Uyghur, and Taiwanese individuals and organizations are the targets of a persistent campaign orchestrated by a threat actor codenamed EvilBamboo to gather sensitive information. "The attacker has created fake Tibetan websites, along with social media profiles, likely used to deploy browser-based exploits against targeted users," Volexity security researchers Callum Roxan, Paul

China Accuses U.S. of Decade-Long Cyber Espionage Campaign Against Huawei Servers

China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) has accused the U.S. of breaking into Huawei's servers, stealing critical data, and implanting backdoors since 2009, amid mounting geopolitical tensions between the two countries. In a message posted on WeChat, the government authority said U.S. intelligence agencies have "done everything possible" to conduct surveillance, secret theft, and intrusions on

SapphireStealer Malware: A Gateway to Espionage and Ransomware Operations

An open-source .NET-based information stealer malware dubbed SapphireStealer is being used by multiple entities to enhance its capabilities and spawn their own bespoke variants. “Information-stealing malware like SapphireStealer can be used to obtain sensitive information, including corporate credentials, which are often resold to other threat actors who leverage the access for additional

Earth Estries' Espionage Campaign Targets Governments and Tech Titans Across Continents

A hacking outfit nicknamed Earth Estries has been attributed to a new, ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting government and technology industries based in the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany, and the U.S. "The threat actors behind Earth Estries are working with high-level resources and functioning with sophisticated skills and experience in cyber espionage and illicit

Russian Hackers Use Zulip Chat App for Covert C&C in Diplomatic Phishing Attacks

An ongoing campaign targeting ministries of foreign affairs of NATO-aligned countries points to the involvement of Russian threat actors. The phishing attacks feature PDF documents with diplomatic lures, some of which are disguised as coming from Germany, to deliver a variant of a malware called Duke, which has been attributed to APT29 (aka BlueBravo, Cloaked Ursa, Cozy Bear, Iron Hemlock,

Researchers Uncover Years-Long Cyber Espionage on Foreign Embassies in Belarus

A hitherto undocumented threat actor operating for nearly a decade and codenamed MoustachedBouncer has been attributed to cyber espionage attacks aimed at foreign embassies in Belarus. "Since 2020, MoustachedBouncer has most likely been able to perform adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attacks at the ISP level, within Belarus, in order to compromise its targets," ESET security researcher Matthieu

Researchers Shed Light on APT31's Advanced Backdoors and Data Exfiltration Tactics

The Chinese threat actor known as APT31 (aka Bronze Vinewood, Judgement Panda, or Violet Typhoon) has been linked to a set of advanced backdoors that are capable of exfiltrating harvested sensitive information to Dropbox. The malware is part of a broader collection of more than 15 implants that have been put to use by the adversary in attacks targeting industrial organizations in Eastern Europe

China-Linked Hackers Strike Worldwide: 17 Nations Hit in 3-Year Cyber Campaign

Hackers associated with China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) have been linked to attacks in 17 different countries in Asia, Europe, and North America from 2021 to 2023. Cybersecurity firm Recorded Future attributed the intrusion set to a nation-state group it tracks under the name RedHotel (previously Threat Activity Group-22 or TAG-22), which overlaps with a cluster of activity broadly

Patchwork Hackers Target Chinese Research Organizations Using EyeShell Backdoor

Threat actors associated with the hacking crew known as Patchwork have been spotted targeting universities and research organizations in China as part of a recently observed campaign. The activity, according to KnownSec 404 Team, entailed the use of a backdoor codenamed EyeShell. Patchwork, also known by the names Operation Hangover and Zinc Emerson, is suspected to be a threat group that