• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

 | 

Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

 | 

China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

 | 

U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

 | 

McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

 | 

American steel giant Nucor confirms data breach in May attack

 | 

The financial impact of Marks & Spencer and Co-op cyberattacks could reach £440M

 | 

Iran-Linked Threat Actors Cyber Fattah Leak Visitors and Athletes' Data from Saudi Games

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 50

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 529 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Iran confirmed it shut down internet to protect the country against cyberattacks

 | 

Godfather Android trojan uses virtualization to hijack banking and crypto apps

 | 

Cloudflare blocked record-breaking 7.3 Tbps DDoS attack against a hosting provider

 | 

Linux flaws chain allows Root access across major distributions

 | 

A ransomware attack pushed the German napkin firm Fasana into insolvency

 | 

Researchers discovered the largest data breach ever, exposing 16 billion login credentials

 | 

China-linked group Salt Typhoon breached satellite firm Viasat

 | 

Iran experienced a near-total national internet blackout

 | 

Malicious Minecraft mods distributed by the Stargazers DaaS target Minecraft gamers

 | 

Healthcare services company Episource data breach impacts 5.4 Million people

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Financially motivated Earth Lusca threat actors targets organizations worldwide

Financially motivated Earth Lusca threat actors targets organizations worldwide

Pierluigi Paganini January 18, 2022

A sophisticated threat actor, tracked as Earth Lusca, is targeting government and private organizations worldwide as for financial purposes.

Trend Micro researchers spotted an elusive threat actor, called Earth Lusca, that targets organizations worldwide via spear-phishing and watering hole attacks. 

According to the security firm, the group is financially motivated, its cyberespionage campaign hit high value targets such as government and educational institutions, religious movements, pro-democracy and human rights organisations in Hong Kong, Covid-19 research organisations, gambling and cryptocurrency companies, and the media.

Trend Micro researchers speculate the group operates under the China-linked Winnti umbrella.

The Winnti group was first spotted by Kaspersky in 2013, but according to the researchers the gang has been active since 2007.

The experts believe that under the Winnti umbrella there are several APT groups, including  Winnti, Gref, PlayfullDragon, APT17, DeputyDog, Axiom, BARIUM, LEAD, PassCV, Wicked Panda, Group 72, Blackfly, and APT41, and ShadowPad.

The APT group targeted organizations in various industries, including the aviation, gaming, pharmaceuticals, technology, telecoms, and software development industries.

The researchers grouped the Earth Lusca’s infrastructure into two “clusters. The first cluster was set up using rented virtual private servers (VPS), it was employed in watering hole and spear-phishing attacks.

The second cluster is composed of compromised servers running vulnerable versions of Oracle GlassFish Server. The second cluster was used to perform scanning for vulnerabilities in public-facing servers and builds traffic tunnels within the target’s network. Both clusters served as a C&C server.

Earth Lusca

“Our telemetry data shows Earth Lusca sending spear phishing emails containing malicious links to one of their targets — a media company. These links contain files that are disguised either as documents that would be of interest to the potential target, or as opinion forms allegedly coming from another media organisation.”reads the analysis published by Trend Micro. “The user eventually downloads an archive file containing either a malicious LNK file or an executable — eventually leading to a Cobalt Strike loader.”

The threat actors were observed deploying Cobalt Strike in the infected networks, along with a set of additional malware and web shells. The group also used other tools such as cryptocurrency miners as part of its operations.

In one of the attacks analyzed by the researchers, the threat actors injected a malicious script into the compromised HR system of a target organisation. This script shows a social engineering message, such as a Flash update popup or a DNS error, and attempts to trick the victim into downloading a malicious file deploy a Cobalt Strike loader.

“Evidence points to Earth Lusca being a highly-skilled and dangerous threat actor mainly motivated by cyberespionage and financial gain. However, the group still primarily relies on tried-and-true techniques to entrap a target,” concludes the analysis. “While this has its advantages (the techniques have already proven to be effective), it also means that security best practices, such as avoiding clicking on suspicious email/website links and updating important public-facing applications, can minimize the impact — or even stop — an Earth Lusca attack.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Earth Lusca)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Cybersecurity cybersecurity news Earth Lusca Hacking hacking news information security news Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini June 24, 2025
The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini June 24, 2025
Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    The U.S. House banned WhatsApp on government devices due to security concerns

    Mobile / June 24, 2025

    Russia-linked APT28 use Signal chats to target Ukraine official with malware

    APT / June 24, 2025

    China-linked APT Salt Typhoon targets Canadian Telecom companies

    APT / June 24, 2025

    U.S. warns of incoming cyber threats following Iran airstrikes

    Cyber warfare / June 24, 2025

    McLaren Health Care data breach impacted over 743,000 people

    Data Breach / June 23, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT