Hackers backed by Iran and Hezbollah staged cyber attacks designed to undercut public support for the Israel-Hamas war after October 2023. This includes destructive attacks against key Israeli organizations, hack-and-leak operations targeting entities in Israel and the U.S., phishing campaigns designed to steal intelligence, and information operations to turn public opinion against Israel. Iran accounted […]
High-profile individuals working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the U.K., and the U.S. have been targeted by an Iranian cyber espionage group called Mint Sandstorm since November 2023. The threat actor “used bespoke phishing lures in an attempt to socially engineer targets into downloading malicious files,” […]
Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a Rust version of a cross-platform backdoor called SysJoker, which is assessed to have been used by a Hamas-affiliated threat actor to target Israel amid the ongoing war in the region. “Among the most prominent changes is the shift to Rust language, which indicates the malware code was entirely […]
Iranian nation-state actors have been observed using a previously undocumented command-and-control (C2) framework called MuddyC2Go as part of attacks targeting Israel. “The framework’s web component is written in the Go programming language,” Deep Instinct security researcher Simon Kenin said in a technical report published Wednesday. The tool has been attributed to MuddyWater, an Iranian state-sponsored […]
Israeli higher education and tech sectors have been targeted as part of a series of destructive cyber attacks that commenced in January 2023 with an aim to deploy previously undocumented wiper malware. The intrusions, which took place as recently as October, have been attributed to an Iranian nation-state hacking crew it tracks under the name […]
A pro-Hamas hacktivist group has been observed using a new Linux-based wiper malware dubbed BiBi-Linux Wiper, targeting Israeli entities amidst the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war. “This malware is an x64 ELF executable, lacking obfuscation or protective measures,” Security Joes said in a new report published today. “It allows attackers to specify target folders and can potentially […]
A Gaza-based threat actor has been linked to a series of cyber attacks aimed at Israeli private-sector energy, defense, and telecommunications organizations. Microsoft, which revealed details of the activity in its fourth annual Digital Defense Report, is tracking the campaign under the name Storm-1133. “We assess this group works to further the interests of Hamas, […]
As part of an ongoing cyber espionage effort, the Iranian nation-state hacking group known as OilRig has continued to target government entities in the Middle East. This cyber espionage campaign makes use of a newly discovered backdoor in order to exfiltrate data. OilRig (APT34) is an Iranian cyberespionage gang that has been active since 2014 […]
The Iranian threat actor known as Agrius is leveraging a new ransomware strain called Moneybird in its attacks targeting Israeli organizations. Agrius, also known as Pink Sandstorm (formerly Americium), has a track record of staging destructive data-wiping attacks aimed at Israel under the guise of ransomware infections. Microsoft has attributed the threat actor to Iran’s […]
An Iranian nation-state threat actor has been linked to a new wave of phishing attacks targeting Israel that’s designed to deploy an updated version of a Windows backdoor called PowerLess. Cybersecurity firm Check Point is tracking the activity cluster under its mythical creature handle Educated Manticore, which exhibits “strong overlaps” with a hacking crew known […]
Threat actors using hacking tools from an Israeli surveillanceware vendor named QuaDream targeted at least five members of civil society in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. According to findings from a group of researchers from the Citizen Lab, the spyware campaign was directed against journalists, political opposition figures, and […]
According to reports, a group of hackers has launched a massive cyberattack on Israeli chemical companies operating in the occupied territories. The hackers have warned the companies’ engineers and workers to resign their positions before they suffer severe repercussions as a result of the Tel Aviv regime‘s unrelenting violence against Palestinians. “Our advice to scientists […]
Meta Platforms disclosed that it took down no less than 200 covert influence operations since 2017 spanning roughly 70 countries across 42 languages. The social media conglomerate also took steps to disable accounts and block infrastructure operated by spyware vendors, including in China, Russia, Israel, the U.S. and India, that targeted individuals in about 200 […]
Iranian hackers broke into a key Israeli security organization on Wednesday, stole surveillance tape that caught one of the twin explosions that occurred in Jerusalem on that day, and then published the material online. Israeli officials authorized for publishing on Thursday that the tape was authentic and was collected by the Moses Staff group in […]
A hacktivist collective called GhostSec has claimed credit for compromising as many as 55 Berghof programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used by Israeli organizations as part of a “Free Palestine” campaign. Industrial cybersecurity firm OTORIO, which dug deeper into the incident, said the breach was made possible owing to the fact that the PLCs were accessible […]
Iranian state-sponsored actors are leaving no stone unturned to exploit unpatched systems running Log4j to target Israeli entities, indicating the vulnerability’s long tail for remediation. Microsoft attributed the latest set of activities to the umbrella threat group tracked as MuddyWater (aka Cobalt Ulster, Mercury, Seedworm, or Static Kitten), which is linked to the Iranian intelligence […]
Iranian media has reported that Iranian hackers managed to take control of servers of the Israel Metro. Sabereen News Telegram channel, said the “huge” cyberattack targeted the operating systems and servers of the “Israel Metro.” Israel’s news channel reported that this led to online bullying of its systems, as Israel has no underground train system. […]
On Sunday night, rocket sirens sounded for almost an hour in Eilat and in several Jerusalem neighborhoods, including Talpiot, Katamon and Beit Hakerem. Life came to a momentary halt when air raid sirens went off that night, even though no rockets were fired. Air raid sirens in Israeli cities created commotion and accusations. Now, Israel’s […]
Microsoft on Thursday said it took steps to disable malicious activity stemming from abuse of OneDrive by a previously undocumented threat actor it tracks under the chemical element-themed moniker Polonium. In addition to removing the offending accounts created by the Lebanon-based activity group, the tech giant’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) said it suspended over 20 […]
Senior officials in the European Union were allegedly targeted with NSO Group’s infamous Pegasus surveillance tool, according to a new report from Reuters. At least five individuals, including European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, are said to have been singled out in total, the news agency said, citing documents and two unnamed E.U. officials. However, it’s […]
A threat actor with affiliations to the cyber warfare division of Hamas has been linked to an “elaborate campaign” targeting high-profile Israeli individuals employed in sensitive defense, law enforcement, and emergency services organizations. “The campaign operators use sophisticated social engineering techniques, ultimately aimed to deliver previously undocumented backdoors for Windows and Android devices,” cybersecurity company […]