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

U.S. Government Agencies' Emails Compromised in China-Backed Cyber Attack

An unnamed Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agency in the U.S. detected anomalous email activity in mid-June 2023, leading to Microsoft's discovery of a new China-linked espionage campaign targeting two dozen organizations. The details come from a joint cybersecurity advisory released by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation

State-Backed Hackers Employ Advanced Methods to Target Middle Eastern and African Governments

Governmental entities in the Middle East and Africa have been at the receiving end of sustained cyber-espionage attacks that leverage never-before-seen and rare credential theft and Exchange email exfiltration techniques. "The main goal of the attacks was to obtain highly confidential and sensitive information, specifically related to politicians, military activities, and ministries of foreign

Tick APT Targeted High-Value Customers of East Asian Data-Loss Prevention Company

A cyberespionage actor known as Tick has been attributed with high confidence to a compromise of an East Asian data-loss prevention (DLP) company that caters to government and military entities. "The attackers compromised the DLP company's internal update servers to deliver malware inside the software developer's network, and trojanized installers of legitimate tools used by the company, which

North Korean UNC2970 Hackers Expands Operations with New Malware Families

A North Korean espionage group tracked as UNC2970 has been observed employing previously undocumented malware families as part of a spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. and European media and technology organizations since June 2022. Google-owned Mandiant said the threat cluster shares "multiple overlaps" with a long-running operation dubbed "Dream Job" that employs job recruitment lures in

Russian Turla Hackers Hijack Decade-Old Malware Infrastructure to Deploy New Backdoors

The Russian cyberespionage group known as Turla has been observed piggybacking on attack infrastructure used by a decade-old malware to deliver its own reconnaissance and backdoor tools to targets in Ukraine. Google-owned Mandiant, which is tracking the operation under the uncategorized cluster moniker UNC4210, said the hijacked servers correspond to a variant of a commodity malware called 

Cyber Attacks Against Middle East Governments Hide Malware in Windows Logo

An espionage-focused threat actor has been observed using a steganographic trick to conceal a previously undocumented backdoor in a Windows logo in its attacks against Middle Eastern governments. Broadcom's Symantec Threat Hunter Team attributed the updated tooling to a hacking group it tracks under the name Witchetty, which is also known as LookingFrog, a subgroup operating under the TA410

Worok Hackers Target High-Profile Asian Companies and Governments

High-profile companies and local governments located primarily in Asia are the subjects of targeted attacks by a previously undocumented espionage group dubbed Worok that has been active since late 2020. "Worok's toolset includes a C++ loader CLRLoad, a PowerShell backdoor PowHeartBeat, and a C# loader PNGLoad that uses steganography to extract hidden malicious payloads from PNG files," ESET