New Wave Of Cyber Attacks Target Palestine With Political Bait And Malware

 

Cybersecurity researchers have turned the spotlight on a new wave of offensive cyberattacks targeting Palestinian activists and entities starting around October 2021 using politically-themed phishing emails and decoy documents.

The intrusions are part of what Cisco Talos calls a longstanding espionage and information theft campaign undertaken by the Arid Viper hacking group using a Delphi-based implant called Micropsia dating all the way back to June 2017.

The threat actor's activities, also tracked under the monikers Desert Falcon and the APT-C-23, were first documented in February 2015 by Kasperksy and subsequently in 2017, when Qihoo 360 disclosed details of cross-platform backdoors developed by the group to strike Palestinian institutions.

The Russian cybersecurity company-branded Arid Viper the "first exclusively Arabic APT group."

Then in April 2021, Meta (formerly Facebook), which pointed out the group's affiliations to the cyber arm of Hamas, said it took steps to boot the adversary off its platform for distributing mobile malware against individuals associated with pro-Fatah groups, the Palestinian government organizations, military and security personnel, and student groups within Palestine.

                                    Decoy document containing text on Palestinian reunification

The raft of new activity relies on the same tactics and document lures used by the group in 2017 and 2019, suggesting a "certain level of success" despite a lack of change in their tooling. More recent decoy files reference themes of Palestinian reunification and sustainable development in the territory that, when opened, lead to the installation of Micropsia on compromised machines.

The backdoor is designed to give the operators an unusual range of control over the infected devices, including the ability to harvest sensitive information and execute commands transmitted from a remote server, such as capturing screenshots, recording the current activity log, and downloading additional payloads.

"Arid Viper is a prime example of groups that aren't very advanced technologically, however, with specific motivations, are becoming more dangerous as they evolve over time and test their tools and procedures on their targets," researchers Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura said.

"These [remote access trojans] can be used to establish long-term access into victim environments and additionally deploy more malware purposed for espionage and stealing information and credentials."

Related links

1. Hack Tools 2019
2. Hack Tools For Ubuntu
3. Hacker Tools 2020
4. Pentest Tools Find Subdomains
5. Pentest Tools Website
6. Hacking Tools 2020
7. Hacker Tools
8. Pentest Tools
9. Pentest Tools Free
10. Hack Tools For Pc
11. Hacking Tools For Kali Linux
12. Hacker Tools For Ios
13. Hacker Security Tools
14. Pentest Tools
15. Pentest Tools Alternative
16. Hacking Tools For Kali Linux
17. Blackhat Hacker Tools
18. Pentest Tools Free
19. Pentest Tools Free
20. Hack Tools For Pc
21. Pentest Tools Bluekeep
22. Pentest Tools Url Fuzzer
23. Beginner Hacker Tools
24. Tools 4 Hack
25. Hack Tool Apk No Root
26. Pentest Box Tools Download
27. New Hacker Tools
28. Hacker Search Tools
29. Best Hacking Tools 2019
30. Blackhat Hacker Tools
31. Hacker Tools Software
32. Beginner Hacker Tools
33. Tools For Hacker
34. Pentest Tools Tcp Port Scanner
35. Wifi Hacker Tools For Windows
36. Hack Tools For Games
37. Pentest Tools Bluekeep
38. How To Hack
39. Hacker Tools Linux
40. Usb Pentest Tools
41. Underground Hacker Sites
42. Nsa Hack Tools
43. What Is Hacking Tools
44. Hacker Tools Windows
45. Pentest Tools Android
46. Pentest Reporting Tools
47. Hacker Tools For Ios
48. Hacking Apps
49. Hack Tools For Games
50. Hacker Tools Software
51. Best Hacking Tools 2019
52. Hacker Tools Free
53. Beginner Hacker Tools
54. Hacking Tools For Mac
55. Pentest Tools Bluekeep
56. Hacker Tools Github
57. Hacker Tools For Pc
58. Pentest Automation Tools
59. Install Pentest Tools Ubuntu
60. Hacking Tools For Windows
61. Pentest Reporting Tools
62. Hacks And Tools
63. Hacker Tools Mac
64. Hack Tools 2019
65. Hacking App
66. Hacking Tools For Windows 7
67. Pentest Recon Tools
68. Usb Pentest Tools
69. How To Make Hacking Tools
70. How To Make Hacking Tools
71. Hacker Tools Windows
72. Pentest Tools Nmap
73. Hack Tools For Windows
74. Pentest Tools Website Vulnerability
75. Hacker Tools
76. Hacking Tools Hardware
77. Hacker Tools For Pc
78. Nsa Hack Tools
79. Hack Tools
80. Hacking Tools Software
81. Pentest Tools Port Scanner
82. Hack Tools
83. Pentest Tools Port Scanner