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2024-07-25 14:00:00 | APT45: Machine militaire numérique de la Corée du Nord APT45: North Korea\\'s Digital Military Machine (lien direct) |
Written by: Taylor Long, Jeff Johnson, Alice Revelli, Fred Plan, Michael Barnhart
Executive Summary APT45 is a long-running, moderately sophisticated North Korean cyber operator that has carried out espionage campaigns as early as 2009. APT45 has gradually expanded into financially-motivated operations, and the group\'s suspected development and deployment of ransomware sets it apart from other North Korean operators. APT45 and activity clusters suspected of being linked to the group are strongly associated with a distinct genealogy of malware families separate from peer North Korean operators like TEMP.Hermit and APT43. Among the groups assessed to operate from the Democratic People\'s Republic of Korea (DPRK), APT45 has been the most frequently observed targeting critical infrastructure. Overview Mandiant assesses with high confidence that APT45 is a moderately sophisticated cyber operator that supports the interests of the DPRK. Since at least 2009, APT45 has carried out a range of cyber operations aligned with the shifting geopolitical interests of the North Korean state. Although the group\'s earliest observed activities consisted of espionage campaigns against government agencies and defense industries, APT45 has expanded its remit to financially-motivated operations, including targeting of the financial vertical; we also assess with moderate confidence that APT45 has engaged in the development of ransomware. Additionally, while multiple DPRK-nexus groups focused on healthcare and pharmaceuticals during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, APT45 has continued to target this vertical longer than other groups, suggesting an ongoing mandate to collect related information. Separately, the group has conducted operations against nuclear-related entities, underscoring its role in supporting DPRK priorities. 
Shifts in Targeting and Expanding Operations
Similar to other cyber threat activity attributed to North Korea-nexus groups, shifts in APT45 operations have reflected the DPRK\'s changing priorities. Malware samples indicate the group was active as early as 2009, although an observed focus on government agencies and the defense industry was observed beginning in 2017. Identified activity in 2019 aligned with Pyongyang\'s continued interest in nuclear issues and energy. Although it is not clear if financially-motivated operations are a focus of APT45\'s current mandate, the group is distinct from other North Korean operators in its suspected interest in ransomware. Given available information, it is possible that APT45 is carrying out financially-motivated cybercrime not only in support of its own operations but to generate funds for other North Korean state priorities.
Financial Sector
Like other North Korea |
Threat Ransomware Malware Tool Medical | APT 37 APT 43 | ★★★★★ |
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2024-06-27 14:00:00 | Le renouveau mondial du hacktivisme nécessite une vigilance accrue des défenseurs Global Revival of Hacktivism Requires Increased Vigilance from Defenders (lien direct) |
Written by: Daniel Kapellmann Zafra, Alden Wahlstrom, James Sadowski, Josh Palatucci, Davyn Baumann, Jose Nazario
Since early 2022, Mandiant has observed the revival and intensification of threat activity from actors leveraging hacktivist tactics and techniques. This comes decades after hacktivism first emerged as a form of online activism and several years since many defenders last considered hacktivism to be a serious threat. However, this new generation of hacktivism has grown to encompass a more complex and often impactful fusion of tactics different actors leverage for their specific objectives. Today\'s hacktivists exhibit increased capabilities in both intrusion and information operations demonstrated by a range of activities such as executing massive disruptive attacks, compromising networks to leak information, conducting information operations, and even tampering with physical world processes. They have leveraged their skills to gain notoriety and reputation, promote political ideologies, and actively support the strategic interests of nation-states. The anonymity provided by hacktivist personas coupled with the range of objectives supported by hacktivist tactics have made them a top choice for both state and non-state actors seeking to exert influence through the cyber domain. This blog post presents Mandiant\'s analysis of the hacktivism threat landscape, and provides analytical tools to understand and assess the level of risk posed by these groups. Based on years of experience tracking hacktivist actors, their claims, and attacks, our insight is meant to help organizations understand and prioritize meaningful threat activity against their own networks and equities. 
Figure 1: Sample of imagery used by hacktivists to promote their threat activity
Proactive Monitoring of Hacktivist Threats Necessary for Defenders to Anticipate Cyberattacks
Mandiant considers activity to be hacktivism when actors claim to or conduct attacks with the publicly stated intent of engaging in political or social activism. The large scale of hacktivism\'s resurgence presents a critical challenge to defenders who need to proactively sift through the noise and assess the risk posed by a multitude of actors with ranging degrees of sophistication. While in many cases hacktivist activity represents a marginal threat, in the most significant hacktivist operations Mandiant has tracked, threat actors have deliberately layered multiple tactics in hybrid operations in such a way that the effect of each component magnified the others. In some cases, hacktivist tactics have been deliberately employed by nation-state actors to support hybrid operations that can seriously harm victims. As the volume and complexity of activity grows and new actors leverage hacktivist tactics, defenders must determine how to filter, assess, and neutralize a range of novel and evolving threats. The proactive moni |
Threat Malware Cloud Tool Industrial Commercial Legislation | APT 38 | ★★★ |
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2024-05-22 14:00:00 | Extinction de l'IOC?Les acteurs de cyber-espionnage de Chine-Nexus utilisent des réseaux orbes pour augmenter les coûts des défenseurs IOC Extinction? China-Nexus Cyber Espionage Actors Use ORB Networks to Raise Cost on Defenders (lien direct) |
Written by: Michael Raggi
Mandiant Intelligence is tracking a growing trend among China-nexus cyber espionage operations where advanced persistent threat (APT) actors utilize proxy networks known as “ORB networks” (operational relay box networks) to gain an advantage when conducting espionage operations. ORB networks are akin to botnets and are made up of virtual private servers (VPS), as well as compromised Internet of Things (IoT) devices, smart devices, and routers that are often end of life or unsupported by their manufacturers. Building networks of compromised devices allows ORB network administrators to easily grow the size of their ORB network with little effort and create a constantly evolving mesh network that can be used to conceal espionage operations. By using these mesh networks to conduct espionage operations, actors can disguise external traffic between command and control (C2) infrastructure and victim environments including vulnerable edge devices that are being exploited via zero-day vulnerabilities. These networks often use both rented VPS nodes in combination with malware designed to target routers so they can grow the number of devices capable of relaying traffic within compromised networks. Mandiant assesses with moderate confidence that this is an effort to raise the cost of defending an enterprise\'s network and shift the advantage toward espionage operators by evading detection and complicating attribution. Mandiant believes that if network defenders can shift the current enterprise defense paradigm away from treating adversary infrastructure like indicators of compromise (IOCs) and instead toward tracking ORB networks like evolving entities akin to APT groups, enterprises can contend with the rising challenge of ORB networks in the threat landscape. IOC Extinction and the Rise of ORB Networks The cybersecurity industry has reported on the APT practice of ORB network usage in the past as well as on the functional implementation of these networks. Less discussed are the implications of broad ORB network usage by a multitude of China-nexus espionage actors, which has become more common over recent years. The following are three key points and paradigm shifting implications about ORB networks that require enterprise network defenders to adapt the way they think about China-nexus espionage actors: ORB networks undermine the idea of “Actor-Controlled Infrastructure”: ORB networks are infrastructure networks administered by independent entities, contractors, or administrators within the People\'s Republic of China (PRC). They are not controlled by a single APT actor. ORB networks create a network interface, administer a network of compromised nodes, and contract access to those networks to multiple APT actors that will use the ORB networks to carry out their own distinct espionage and reconnaissance. These networks are not controlled by APT actors using them, but rather are temporarily used by these APT actors often to deploy custom tooling more conventionally attributable to known China-nexus adversaries. ORB network infrastructure has a short lifesp |
Threat Malware Cloud Tool Prediction Commercial Vulnerability | APT 15 APT 5 APT 31 | ★★★ |
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2024-05-01 14:00:00 | Uncharmed: Untangling Iran\'s APT42 Operations (lien direct) | Written by: Ofir Rozmann, Asli Koksal, Adrian Hernandez, Sarah Bock, Jonathan Leathery
APT42, an Iranian state-sponsored cyber espionage actor, is using enhanced social engineering schemes to gain access to victim networks, including cloud environments. The actor is targeting Western and Middle Eastern NGOs, media organizations, academia, legal services and activists. Mandiant assesses APT42 operates on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO). APT42 was observed posing as journalists and event organizers to build trust with their victims through ongoing correspondence, and to deliver invitations to conferences or legitimate documents. These social engineering schemes enabled APT42 to harvest credentials and use them to gain initial access to cloud environments. Subsequently, the threat actor covertly exfiltrated data of strategic interest to Iran, while relying on built-in features and open-source tools to avoid detection. In addition to cloud operations, we also outline recent malware-based APT42 operations using two custom backdoors: NICECURL and TAMECAT. These backdoors are delivered via spear phishing, providing the attackers with initial access that might be used as a command execution interface or as a jumping point to deploy additional malware. APT42 targeting and missions are consistent with its assessed affiliation with the IRGC-IO, which is a part of the Iranian intelligence apparatus that is responsible for monitoring and preventing foreign threats to the Islamic Republic and domestic unrest. APT42 activities overlap with the publicly reported actors CALANQUE (Google Threat Analysis Group), Charming Kitten (ClearSky and CERTFA), Mint Sandstorm/Phosphorus (Microsoft), TA453 (Proofpoint), Yellow Garuda (PwC), and ITG18 ( |
Threat Malware Cloud Tool | Yahoo APT 35 APT 42 | ★★ |
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2024-04-25 10:00:00 | Pole Voûte: cyber-menaces aux élections mondiales Poll Vaulting: Cyber Threats to Global Elections (lien direct) |
Written by: Kelli Vanderlee, Jamie Collier
Executive Summary The election cybersecurity landscape globally is characterized by a diversity of targets, tactics, and threats. Elections attract threat activity from a variety of threat actors including: state-sponsored actors, cyber criminals, hacktivists, insiders, and information operations as-a-service entities. Mandiant assesses with high confidence that state-sponsored actors pose the most serious cybersecurity risk to elections. Operations targeting election-related infrastructure can combine cyber intrusion activity, disruptive and destructive capabilities, and information operations, which include elements of public-facing advertisement and amplification of threat activity claims. Successful targeting does not automatically translate to high impact. Many threat actors have struggled to influence or achieve significant effects, despite their best efforts. When we look across the globe we find that the attack surface of an election involves a wide variety of entities beyond voting machines and voter registries. In fact, our observations of past cycles indicate that cyber operations target the major players involved in campaigning, political parties, news and social media more frequently than actual election infrastructure. Securing elections requires a comprehensive understanding of many types of threats and tactics, from distributed denial of service (DDoS) to data theft to deepfakes, that are likely to impact elections in 2024. It is vital to understand the variety of relevant threat vectors and how they relate, and to ensure mitigation strategies are in place to address the full scope of potential activity. Election organizations should consider steps to harden infrastructure against common attacks, and utilize account security tools such as Google\'s Advanced Protection Program to protect high-risk accounts. Introduction The 2024 global election cybersecurity landscape is characterized by a diversity of targets, tactics, and threats. An expansive ecosystem of systems, administrators, campaign infrastructure, and public communications venues must be secured against a diverse array of operators and methods. Any election cybersecurity strategy should begin with a survey of the threat landscape to build a more proactive and tailored security posture. The cybersecurity community must keep pace as more than two billion voters are expected to head to the polls in 2024. With elections in more than an estimated 50 countries, there is an opportunity to dynamically track how threats to democracy evolve. Understanding how threats are targeting one country will enable us to better anticipate and prepare for upcoming elections globally. At the same time, we must also appreciate the unique context of different countries. Election threats to South Africa, India, and the United States will inevitably differ in some regard. In either case, there is an opportunity for us to prepare with the advantage of intelligence. |
Threat Ransomware Malware Hack Cloud Tool Technical Vulnerability Legislation | APT 40 APT 29 APT 28 APT 43 APT 31 APT 42 | ★★★ |
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