Threat Actors

DragonForce is a hacktivist group based in Malaysia that has been involved in cyberattacks targeting government institutions and commercial organizations in India. They have also targeted websites affiliated with Israel and have shown support for pro-Palestinian causes. The group has been observed using defacement attacks, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and data leaks as part of their campaigns. DragonForce Malaysia has demonstrated an ability to adapt and evolve their tactics over time.

aka BERSERK BEAR, ALLANITE, CASTLE +14

A Russian group that collects intelligence on the energy industry.

aka Snake, VENOMOUS Bear, Group 88 +22

A 2014 Guardian article described Turla as: 'Dubbed the Turla hackers, initial intelligence had indicated western powers were key targets, but it was later determined embassies for Eastern Bloc nations were of more interest. Embassies in Belgium, Ukraine, China, Jordan, Greece, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Poland, and Germany were all attacked, though researchers from Kaspersky Lab and Symantec could not confirm which countries were the true targets. In one case from May 2012, the office of the prime minister of a former Soviet Union member country was infected, leading to 60 further computers being affected, Symantec researchers said. There were some other victims, including the ministry for health of a Western European country, the ministry for education of a Central American country, a state electricity provider in the Middle East and a medical organisation in the US, according to Symantec. It is believed the group was also responsible for a much - documented 2008 attack on the US Central Command. The attackers - who continue to operate - have ostensibly sought to carry out surveillance on targets and pilfer data, though their use of encryption across their networks has made it difficult to ascertain exactly what the hackers took.Kaspersky Lab, however, picked up a number of the attackers searches through their victims emails, which included terms such as Nato and EU energy dialogue Though attribution is difficult to substantiate, Russia has previously been suspected of carrying out the attacks and Symantecs Gavin O’ Gorman told the Guardian a number of the hackers appeared to be using Russian names and language in their notes for their malicious code. Cyrillic was also seen in use.'

aka Bitter, T-APT-17, APT-C-08 +2

The Bitter threat group initially started using RAT tools in their campaigns, as the first Bitter versions, for Android released in 2014 were based on the AndroRAT framework. Over time, they switched to a custom version that has been known as BitterRAT ever since.

aka SideWinder, Rattlesnake, APT-C-17 +1

An actor mainly targeting Pakistan military targets, active since at least 2012. We have low confidence that this malware might be authored by an Indian company. To spread the malware, they use unique implementations to leverage the exploits of known vulnerabilities (such as CVE-2017-11882) and later deploy a Powershell payload in the final stages.

aka LAPSUS$, DEV-0537, SLIPPY SPIDER +3

An actor group conducting large-scale social engineering and extortion campaign against multiple organizations with some seeing evidence of destructive elements.

aka Uteus

UNC5174, a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor, has been identified by Mandiant for exploiting critical vulnerabilities in F5 BIG-IP and ScreenConnect. They have been linked to targeting research and education institutions, businesses, charities, NGOs, and government organizations in Southeast Asia, the U.S., and the UK. UNC5174 is believed to have connections to China's Ministry of State Security and has been observed using custom tooling and the SUPERSHELL framework in their operations. The actor has shown indications of transitioning from hacktivist collectives to working as a contractor for Chinese intelligence agencies.

aka Group 100, COZY BEAR, The Dukes +14

A 2015 report by F-Secure describe APT29 as: 'The Dukes are a well-resourced, highly dedicated and organized cyberespionage group that we believe has been working for the Russian Federation since at least 2008 to collect intelligence in support of foreign and security policy decision-making. The Dukes show unusual confidence in their ability to continue successfully compromising their targets, as well as in their ability to operate with impunity. The Dukes primarily target Western governments and related organizations, such as government ministries and agencies, political think tanks, and governmental subcontractors. Their targets have also included the governments of members of the Commonwealth of Independent States;Asian, African, and Middle Eastern governments;organizations associated with Chechen extremism;and Russian speakers engaged in the illicit trade of controlled substances and drugs. The Dukes are known to employ a vast arsenal of malware toolsets, which we identify as MiniDuke, CosmicDuke, OnionDuke, CozyDuke, CloudDuke, SeaDuke, HammerDuke, PinchDuke, and GeminiDuke. In recent years, the Dukes have engaged in apparently biannual large - scale spear - phishing campaigns against hundreds or even thousands of recipients associated with governmental institutions and affiliated organizations. These campaigns utilize a smash - and - grab approach involving a fast but noisy breakin followed by the rapid collection and exfiltration of as much data as possible.If the compromised target is discovered to be of value, the Dukes will quickly switch the toolset used and move to using stealthier tactics focused on persistent compromise and long - term intelligence gathering. This threat actor targets government ministries and agencies in the West, Central Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East; Chechen extremist groups; Russian organized crime; and think tanks. It is suspected to be behind the 2015 compromise of unclassified networks at the White House, Department of State, Pentagon, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The threat actor includes all of the Dukes tool sets, including MiniDuke, CosmicDuke, OnionDuke, CozyDuke, SeaDuke, CloudDuke (aka MiniDionis), and HammerDuke (aka Hammertoss). '

aka DarkHalo, StellarParticle, NOBELIUM +2

Reporting regarding activity related to the SolarWinds supply chain injection has grown quickly since initial disclosure on 13 December 2020. A significant amount of press reporting has focused on the identification of the actor(s) involved, victim organizations, possible campaign timeline, and potential impact. The US Government and cyber community have also provided detailed information on how the campaign was likely conducted and some of the malware used. MITRE’s ATT&CK team — with the assistance of contributors — has been mapping techniques used by the actor group, referred to as UNC2452/Dark Halo by FireEye and Volexity respectively, as well as SUNBURST and TEARDROP malware.

aka Pawn Storm, FANCY BEAR, Sednit +25

The Sofacy Group (also known as APT28, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear and Sednit) is a cyber espionage group believed to have ties to the Russian government. Likely operating since 2007, the group is known to target government, military, and security organizations. It has been characterized as an advanced persistent threat.

aka UAC-0114, TA473, TAG-70 +1

Winter Vivern is a cyberespionage group first revealed by DomainTools in 2021. It is thought to have been active since at least 2020 and it targets governments in Europe and Central Asia. To compromise its targets, the group uses malicious documents, phishing websites, and a custom PowerShell backdoor.

The actor systematically exported large volumes of data from numerous corporate Salesforce instances. GTIG assesses the primary intent of the threat actor is to harvest credentials. After the data was exfiltrated, the actor searched through the data to look for secrets that could be potentially used to compromise victim environments. GTIG observed UNC6395 targeting sensitive credentials such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) access keys (AKIA), passwords, and Snowflake-related access tokens. UNC6395 demonstrated operational security awareness by deleting query jobs, however logs were not impacted and organizations should still review relevant logs for evidence of data exposure.

aka CyberAv3ngers, Shahid Kaveh Group

Cyber Av3ngers is an Iranian IRGC Cyber-Electronic Command-affiliated threat actor that targets internet-exposed operational technology and industrial control systems. Public reporting documents disruptive targeting of Israeli-made Unitronics PLCs and HMIs, broader critical-infrastructure targeting, and use of the IOCONTROL malware against IoT and OT devices.

aka Quedagh, VOODOO BEAR, TEMP.Noble +11

This threat actor targets industrial control systems, using a tool called Black Energy, associated with electricity and power generation for espionage, denial of service, and data destruction purposes. Some believe that the threat actor is linked to the 2015 compromise of the Ukrainian electrical grid and a distributed denial of service prior to the Russian invasion of Georgia. Believed to be responsible for the 2008 DDoS attacks in Georgia and the 2015 Ukraine power grid outage

aka Z-Pentest

Z-Pentest Alliance is a pro-Russian hacktivist group known for targeting industrial control systems and operational technology systems, particularly in Italy and Israel. The group has claimed responsibility for various attacks, including gaining control of a water supply management system and disrupting aviation authorities' websites. Z-Pentest Alliance operates within a larger alliance of hacktivist groups, often collaborating on politically motivated operations, including DDoS campaigns. The group has been linked to the GRU and is associated with the NoName057 group, sharing tools and intelligence.

aka NoName057, NoName05716, 05716nnm +1

NoName057(16) is performing DDoS attacks on websites belonging to governments, news agencies, armies, suppliers, telecommunications companies, transportation authorities, financial institutions, and more in Ukraine and neighboring countries supporting Ukraine, like Ukraine itself, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, and Poland.

UAT-5918 is an APT group that targets entities in Taiwan, primarily in telecommunications, healthcare, and IT sectors, to establish long-term access for information theft. They exploit N-day vulnerabilities in unpatched web and application servers to gain initial access and utilize web shells, credential harvesting tools like Mimikatz and LaZagne, and red-teaming tools for post-compromise activities. UAT-5918 conducts network reconnaissance to pivot across endpoints, harvesting credentials and sensitive data, including database backups. Their operations show significant overlap with other APT groups in terms of TTPs and targeted industries.

aka ATK233, G0125, Operation Exchange Marauder +3

HAFNIUM primarily targets entities in the United States across a number of industry sectors, including infectious disease researchers, law firms, higher education institutions, defense contractors, policy think tanks, and NGOs. Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) attributes this campaign with high confidence to HAFNIUM, a group assessed to be state-sponsored and operating out of China, based on observed victimology, tactics and procedures. HAFNIUM has previously compromised victims by exploiting vulnerabilities in internet-facing servers, and has used legitimate open-source frameworks, like Covenant, for command and control. Once they’ve gained access to a victim network, HAFNIUM typically exfiltrates data to file sharing sites like MEGA.In campaigns unrelated to these vulnerabilities, Microsoft has observed HAFNIUM interacting with victim Office 365 tenants. While they are often unsuccessful in compromising customer accounts, this reconnaissance activity helps the adversary identify more details about their targets’ environments. HAFNIUM operates primarily from leased virtual private servers (VPS) in the United States.

aka TEMP.Zagros, Static Kitten, Seedworm +8

The MuddyWater attacks are primarily against Middle Eastern nations. However, we have also observed attacks against surrounding nations and beyond, including targets in India and the USA. MuddyWater attacks are characterized by the use of a slowly evolving PowerShell-based first stage backdoor we call “POWERSTATS”. Despite broad scrutiny and reports on MuddyWater attacks, the activity continues with only incremental changes to the tools and techniques.

aka COBALT LYCEUM, HEXANE, UNC1530 +5

Lyceum is an Iranian APT group that has been active since at least 2014. They primarily target Middle Eastern governments and organizations in the energy and telecommunications sectors. Lyceum is known for using cyber espionage techniques and has been linked to other Iranian threat groups such as APT34. They have developed and deployed malware families like Shark and Milan, and have been observed using DNS tunneling and HTTPfor command and control communication.

aka Twisted Kitten, Cobalt Gypsy, Crambus +11

OilRig is an Iranian threat group operating primarily in the Middle East by targeting organizations in this region that are in a variety of different industries; however, this group has occasionally targeted organizations outside of the Middle East as well. It also appears OilRig carries out supply chain attacks, where the threat group leverages the trust relationship between organizations to attack their primary targets. OilRig is an active and organized threat group, which is evident based on their systematic targeting of specific organizations that appear to be carefully chosen for strategic purposes. Attacks attributed to this group primarily rely on social engineering to exploit the human rather than software vulnerabilities; however, on occasion this group has used recently patched vulnerabilities in the delivery phase of their attacks. The lack of software vulnerability exploitation does not necessarily suggest a lack of sophistication, as OilRig has shown maturity in other aspects of their operations. Such maturities involve: -Organized evasion testing used the during development of their tools. -Use of custom DNS Tunneling protocols for command and control (C2) and data exfiltration. -Custom web-shells and backdoors used to persistently access servers. OilRig relies on stolen account credentials for lateral movement. After OilRig gains access to a system, they use credential dumping tools, such as Mimikatz, to steal credentials to accounts logged into the compromised system. The group uses these credentials to access and to move laterally to other systems on the network. After obtaining credentials from a system, operators in this group prefer to use tools other than their backdoors to access the compromised systems, such as remote desktop and putty. OilRig also uses phishing sites to harvest credentials to individuals at targeted organizations to gain access to internet accessible resources, such as Outlook Web Access. Since at least 2014, an Iranian threat group tracked by FireEye as APT34 has conducted reconnaissance aligned with the strategic interests of Iran. The group conducts operations primarily in the Middle East, targeting financial, government, energy, chemical, telecommunications and other industries. Repeated targeting of Middle Eastern financial, energy and government organizations leads FireEye to assess that those sectors are a primary concern of APT34. The use of infrastructure tied to Iranian operations, timing and alignment with the national interests of Iran also lead FireEye to assess that APT34 acts on behalf of the Iranian government.

aka Silver Fox

Void Arachne is a threat actor group targeting Chinese-speaking users with malicious MSI files containing legitimate software installers for AI software. They exploit public interest in VPN technology and AI software to distribute malware through SEO poisoning and Chinese-language-themed Telegram channels. The group's campaign includes bundling malicious Winos payloads with deepfake pornography-generating AI software and voice-and-face-swapping AI software. Void Arachne also promotes AI technologies for virtual kidnapping and uses AI voice-alternating technology to pressure victims into paying ransom.

aka Chinastrats, Patchwork, Monsoon +8

Dropping Elephant (also known as “Chinastrats” and “Patchwork“) is a relatively new threat actor that is targeting a variety of high profile diplomatic and economic targets using a custom set of attack tools. Its victims are all involved with China’s foreign relations in some way, and are generally caught through spear-phishing or watering hole attacks.

Contagious Interview is a North Korea–aligned threat group active since 2023. The group conducts both cyberespionage and financially motivated operations, including the theft of cryptocurrency and user credentials. Contagious Interview targets Windows, Linux, and macOS systems, with a particular focus on individuals engaged in software development and cryptocurrency-related activities.

aka Famous Chollima, UNC5267, Wagemole +5

WageMole is a North Korean state-sponsored APT that employs social engineering and technology to secure remote job opportunities in Western countries, leveraging stolen personal data from the Contagious Interview campaign. Threat actors create fake identities, including passports and driver's licenses, and prepare study guides for interviews, often utilizing generative AI for well-structured responses. They target small to mid-sized businesses and utilize job platforms like Upwork and Indeed, while employing automation scripts for account creation. WageMole's activities include sharing code within their group and requesting payments through platforms like PayPal to conceal their identity.

aka Altered Spider

TeamPCP is a threat actor that has executed a coordinated series of supply chain attacks, compromising widely-used open source tools such as Trivy, KICS, and LiteLLM to deploy credential-stealing malware. They employed techniques like credential harvesting, lateral movement within Kubernetes environments, and audio steganography to evade detection. The group has demonstrated the ability to leverage stolen credentials to propagate attacks across multiple ecosystems, including npm and PyPI, using a self-propagating worm known as CanisterWorm. Their operations have included the use of AES-256 encryption and RSA-4096 for exfiltration of sensitive data.

aka UNC3944, Muddled Libra, Oktapus +7

Scattered Spider, a highly active hacking group, has made headlines by targeting more than 130 organizations, with the number of victims steadily increasing.

RansomHub is a rapidly growing ransomware group believed to be an updated version of the older Knight ransomware. They have been linked to attacks exploiting the Zerologon vulnerability to gain initial access. RansomHub has attracted former affiliates of the ALPHV ransomware group and operates as a Ransomware-as-a-Service with a unique affiliate prepayment model. The group has been active in extorting victims and leaking sensitive data to pressure for ransom payments.

UAT-7237 is a Chinese-speaking APT group that has been active since at least 2022, primarily targeting web infrastructure entities in Taiwan. They utilize a customized Shellcode loader known as “SoundBill” to execute shellcode, including Cobalt Strike payloads, and rely on SoftEther VPN clients and RDP for persistence and access. UAT-7237 employs techniques such as credential extraction using Mimikatz, reconnaissance with WMI-based tools, and selective deployment of web shells. Their operations indicate a focus on long-term persistence and stealth, with a preference for open-sourced and customized tooling.

ShinyHunters is a cybercriminal group of unknown origin that is motivated by financial gain. The group is known for its sophisticated attacks against a wide range of targets, including businesses, organizations, and government agencies. ShinyHunters typically uses phishing attacks and exploit kits to gain access to victim networks, where they deploy malware to steal sensitive data, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and credit card information.