Is ICEMAN behind the malware-based attack on Crystal Finance Millennium?

Exclusive – The Iceman gang taking responsibility for infecting Crystal Finance Millennium, the journalist Marc Miller interviewd one of the members of the crew.

Iceman gang member confirms that they are behind the introduction and spreading of malware that infected the systems at Crystal Finance Millennium.

In Septemeber security experts at TrendMicro reported that the Ukraine based Account Firm, Crystal Finance Millennium (CFM), has been hacked and is found to be distributing malware.

The incident caused the firm to take down its website to stop spreading the threat.

Crystal Finance Millennium attack (Source Trend Micro)

Marc Miller had a chance to speak to one of the gang members on XMMP and he confirmed that the Iceman group is behind this attack. They started with a simple web attack (SQLI which lead to web shell upload, no privilege escalation was needed) in order to gain access to the web servers of the company.

He confirmed that the math was simple, the Ukrainian company had many clients in the financial and medical sector which facilitated the propagation of their malware. From the archived web page, it becomes apparent they provide accounting software, personalization of medical records, blood service and “full automation of the doctor’s office” – contrary to what their company name suggests, it appears they are (mostly) focused on medical software.

The group sent phishing emails to various targets based in Ukraine and former Soviet countries. The emails contained a ZIP file that, in turn, contained a JavaScript file. When users unzipped the archive and ran the JS file, the script would download a file named load.exe from the CFM’s web server.

The loader (load.exe file) will, later on, download a Purge ransomware that was modified for that operation by the Iceman group. According to the gang, each target was treated individually to maximize profit. Sometimes they would run a ransomware program and sometimes they would run a banking Trojan. “When you sophisticate your attack, you can drain the sharks” – he said.

An inclusive interview is in the making to unveil the course of this attack. It will be released in the upcoming weeks.

About the Author: Marc Miller
Marc Miller is a web journalist, focused on cybercrime.

He started a blog called: THE PURPLE HAT – Cyber Gangs NAKED, dedicated to exposing the methods and works of cybercrime gangs such as “CARBANAK” or similar sophisticated syndicated Cybercrime organizations.

In the past. he worked as a web front-end programmer. Also, he is passionate about hardware, hacking, security and marketing.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – ICEMAN, Crystal Finance Millennium)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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