Intelligence

Pierluigi Paganini October 31, 2018
Cyber mercenaries and insiders hired by Chinese intelligence to hack aerospace and tech firms

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Chinese intelligence officers recruited hackers and insiders to hack aerospace and tech firms. US DoJ accuses the Chinese intelligence to have recruited hackers and insiders to steal confidential information from companies in aerospace and tech companies. US intelligence believes that the cyber espionage operation was under the control of Zha […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 28, 2018
The Belgacom hack was the work of the UK GCHQ intelligence agency

Belgian newspaper reported that investigators had found proof that the Belgacom hack was the work of the UK GCHQ intelligence agency. Back to September 2013, Belgacom (now Proximus), the largest telecommunications company in Belgium and primarily state-owned, announced its IT  infrastructure had suffered a malware-based attack. Here we are again to speak about this incident after […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 22, 2018
Israel Defense Forces were searching systems to spy on private social media messages

The Israel Defense Forces has bid to obtain spying systems that will allow monitoring of the private messages of social media users. Monitoring of social media platforms is a crucial activity for intelligence agencies, almost any government is working to gather intelligence for these systems. According to the Haaretz, the Israel Defense Forces has bid to […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 19, 2018
Attackers behind Operation Oceansalt reuse code from Chinese Comment Crew

Security researchers from McAfee have recently uncovered a cyber espionage campaign, tracked as Operation Oceansalt, targeting South Korea, the United States, and Canada. The threat actors behind Operation Oceansalt are reusing malware previously associated with China-linked cyberespionage group APT1. “McAfee Advanced Threat Research and Anti-Malware Operations teams have discovered another unknown data reconnaissance implant targeting Korean-speaking users.” reads the report. “We […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 17, 2018
MartyMcFly Malware: new Cyber-Espionage Campaign targeting Italian Naval Industry

Yoroi security firm uncovered a targeted attack against one of the most important companies in the Italian Naval Industry leveraging MartyMcFly Malware. Today I’d like to share an interesting analysis of a Targeted Attack found and dissected by Yoroi (technical details are available here). The victim was one of the most important leaders in the field of security and defensive military […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 16, 2018
Russia-linked APT group DustSquad targets diplomatic entities in Central Asia

Kaspersky experts published a detailed analysis of the attacks conducted by the Russian-linked cyber espionage group DustSquad. Earlier October, security experts from ESET shared details about the operations of a cyber espionage group tracked as Nomadic Octopus, a threat actor focused on diplomatic entities in Central Asia. The group has been active since at least 2015, ESET researchers presented […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 12, 2018
Five Eyes Intelligence agencies warn of popular hacking tools

Security agencies belonging to Five Eyes (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have released a joint report that details some popular hacking tools. Experts from cybersecurity agencies from Five Eyes intelligence alliance have issued a report that provides technical details on most popular hacking tool families and the way to detect and […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 08, 2018
Kaspersky shed lights on the overlap of operations conducted by Turla and Sofacy

Researchers from Kaspersky Lab collected evidence that demonstrates overlaps between the activity of Russian APT groups Turla and Sofacy.  In March, during the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit held in Cancun, Kurt Baumgartner, Kaspersky principal security researcher, revealed the activity associated with Sofacy APT group appears to overlap with campaigns conducted by other cyber espionage groups. Baumgartner […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 07, 2018
APT28 group return to covert intelligence gathering ops in Europe and South America.

Experts from Symantec collected evidence that APT28 group returns to covert intelligence gathering operations in Europe and South America. APT28 state-sponsored group (aka Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit, and STRONTIUM) seems to have shifted the focus for its operations away from election interference to cyber espionage activities. The APT28 group has been active since at least 2007 and it has targeted governments, […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 05, 2018
US DoJ indicted 7 Russian Intelligence officers for attacking Anti-Doping Organizations

US DoJ indicted seven defendants working for the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), for hacking, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. The news of the day is that a US DoJ indicted seven defendants working for the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), for hacking, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. The defendants are […]