Sunday, March 7, 2021
  • Setup menu at Appearance » Menus and assign menu to Top Bar Navigation
Advertisement
  • AI Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine Learning
    • Neural Networks
    • Learn to Code
  • Data
    • Blockchain
    • Big Data
    • Data Science
  • IT Security
    • Internet Privacy
    • Internet Security
  • Marketing
    • Digital Marketing
    • Marketing Technology
  • Technology Companies
  • Crypto News
No Result
View All Result
NikolaNews
  • AI Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine Learning
    • Neural Networks
    • Learn to Code
  • Data
    • Blockchain
    • Big Data
    • Data Science
  • IT Security
    • Internet Privacy
    • Internet Security
  • Marketing
    • Digital Marketing
    • Marketing Technology
  • Technology Companies
  • Crypto News
No Result
View All Result
NikolaNews
No Result
View All Result
Home Internet Privacy

Iranian APT Group Targets Governments in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

May 21, 2020
in Internet Privacy
Iranian APT Group Targets Governments in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
587
SHARES
3.3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Today, cybersecurity researchers shed light on an Iranian cyber espionage campaign directed against critical infrastructures in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Bitdefender said the intelligence-gathering operations were conducted by Chafer APT (also known as APT39 or Remix Kitten), a threat actor known for its attacks on telecommunication and travel industries in the Middle East to collect personal information that serves the country’s geopolitical interests.

You might also like

Researchers Find 3 New Malware Strains Used by SolarWinds Hackers

Bug in Apple’s Find My Feature Could’ve Exposed Users’ Location Histories

Mazafaka — Elite Hacking and Cybercrime Forum — Got Hacked!

“Victims of the analyzed campaigns fit into the pattern preferred by this actor, such as air transport and government sectors in the Middle East,” the researchers said in a report (PDF) shared with The Hacker News, adding at least one of the attacks went undiscovered for more than a year and a half since 2018.

“The campaigns were based on several tools, including ‘living off the land’ tools, which makes attribution difficult, as well as different hacking tools and a custom-built backdoor.”

Known to be active since 2014, the Chafer APT has previously taken aim at Turkish government organizations and foreign diplomatic entities based in Iran with the goal of exfiltrating sensitive data.

A FireEye report last year added to growing evidence of Chafer’s focus on telecommunications and travel industries. “Telecommunications firms are attractive targets given that they store large amounts of personal and customer information, provide access to critical infrastructure used for communications, and enable access to a wide range of potential targets across multiple verticals,” the company said.

APT39 compromises its targets via spear-phishing emails with malicious attachments and using a variety of backdoor tools to gain a foothold, elevate their privileges, conduct internal reconnaissance, and establish persistence in the victim environment.

What makes the Kuwait attack more elaborate, according to Bitdefender, is their ability to create a user account on the victims’ machine and perform malicious actions inside the network, including network scanning (CrackMapExec), credential harvesting (Mimikatz), and move laterally inside the networks using a wide arsenal of tools at their disposal.

Most activity occurs on Friday and Saturday, coinciding with the weekend in the Middle East, the researchers said.

The attack against a Saudi Arabian entity, on the other hand, involved the use of social engineering to trick the victim into running a remote administration tool (RAT), with some of its components sharing similarities with those used against Kuwait and Turkey.

“While this attack was not as extensive as the one in Kuwait, some forensic evidence suggests that the same attackers might have orchestrated it,” the researchers said. “Despite the evidence for network discovery, we were not able to find any traces for lateral movement, most probably because threat actors were not able to find any vulnerable machines.”

The attacks against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are a reminder that Iran’s cyber espionage efforts have shown no sign of slowing down. Given the crucial nature of the industries involved, Chafer’s actions continue the trend of striking countries that act against its national ambitions.

“While these two are the most recent attack examples happening in the Middle East, it is important to understand that this type of attack can happen anywhere in the world, and critical infrastructures like government and air transportation remain very sensitive targets,” Bitdefender said.


Credit: The Hacker News By: noreply@blogger.com (Ravie Lakshmanan)

Previous Post

Stock Market Whipsaws on Vaccine Hype – But Smart Money Isn’t Buying It

Next Post

Video game developers under siege by cyberattacks seeking to plunder in-game cash

Related Posts

Researchers Find 3 New Malware Strains Used by SolarWinds Hackers
Internet Privacy

Researchers Find 3 New Malware Strains Used by SolarWinds Hackers

March 6, 2021
Bug in Apple’s Find My Feature Could’ve Exposed Users’ Location Histories
Internet Privacy

Bug in Apple’s Find My Feature Could’ve Exposed Users’ Location Histories

March 6, 2021
Mazafaka — Elite Hacking and Cybercrime Forum — Got Hacked!
Internet Privacy

Mazafaka — Elite Hacking and Cybercrime Forum — Got Hacked!

March 6, 2021
Google Cloud Certifications — Get Prep Courses and Practice Tests at 95% Discount
Internet Privacy

Google Cloud Certifications — Get Prep Courses and Practice Tests at 95% Discount

March 5, 2021
CISA Issues Emergency Directive on In-the-Wild Microsoft Exchange Flaws
Internet Privacy

CISA Issues Emergency Directive on In-the-Wild Microsoft Exchange Flaws

March 5, 2021
Next Post
Video game developers under siege by cyberattacks seeking to plunder in-game cash

Video game developers under siege by cyberattacks seeking to plunder in-game cash

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Plasticity in Deep Learning: Dynamic Adaptations for AI Self-Driving Cars

Plasticity in Deep Learning: Dynamic Adaptations for AI Self-Driving Cars

January 6, 2019
Microsoft, Google Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Hackers

Microsoft, Google Use Artificial Intelligence to Fight Hackers

January 6, 2019

Categories

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data
  • Blockchain
  • Crypto News
  • Data Science
  • Digital Marketing
  • Internet Privacy
  • Internet Security
  • Learn to Code
  • Machine Learning
  • Marketing Technology
  • Neural Networks
  • Technology Companies

Don't miss it

Okta and Auth0: A $6.5 billion bet that identity will warrant its own cloud
Internet Security

Okta and Auth0: A $6.5 billion bet that identity will warrant its own cloud

March 7, 2021
Researchers at Utrecht University Develop an Open-Source Machine Learning (ML) Framework Called ASReview to Help Researchers Carry Out Systematic Reviews
Machine Learning

Researchers at Utrecht University Develop an Open-Source Machine Learning (ML) Framework Called ASReview to Help Researchers Carry Out Systematic Reviews

March 7, 2021
CISA issues emergency directive to agencies: Deal with Microsoft Exchange zero-days now
Internet Security

CISA issues emergency directive to agencies: Deal with Microsoft Exchange zero-days now

March 7, 2021
Why do Machine Learning strategies fail and how to deal with them?
Machine Learning

Why do Machine Learning strategies fail and how to deal with them?

March 7, 2021
Linux distributions: All the talent and hard work that goes into building a good one
Internet Security

Linux distributions: All the talent and hard work that goes into building a good one

March 7, 2021
Enhance your gaming experience with this sound algorithm software
Machine Learning

Enhance your gaming experience with this sound algorithm software

March 7, 2021
NikolaNews

NikolaNews.com is an online News Portal which aims to share news about blockchain, AI, Big Data, and Data Privacy and more!

What’s New Here?

  • Okta and Auth0: A $6.5 billion bet that identity will warrant its own cloud March 7, 2021
  • Researchers at Utrecht University Develop an Open-Source Machine Learning (ML) Framework Called ASReview to Help Researchers Carry Out Systematic Reviews March 7, 2021
  • CISA issues emergency directive to agencies: Deal with Microsoft Exchange zero-days now March 7, 2021
  • Why do Machine Learning strategies fail and how to deal with them? March 7, 2021

Subscribe to get more!

© 2019 NikolaNews.com - Global Tech Updates

No Result
View All Result
  • AI Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine Learning
    • Neural Networks
    • Learn to Code
  • Data
    • Blockchain
    • Big Data
    • Data Science
  • IT Security
    • Internet Privacy
    • Internet Security
  • Marketing
    • Digital Marketing
    • Marketing Technology
  • Technology Companies
  • Crypto News

© 2019 NikolaNews.com - Global Tech Updates