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Iranian Hackers Pose as Journalists to Spy on US Government Officials and Diplomats

Iranian Hackers Pose as Journalists to Spy on US Government Officials and Diplomats
May 29, 2014
The Iranian hackers may have spent years in running a creative and most dedicated cyber espionage campaign to steal government credentials with the help of Social Media including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Blogger. A Dallas-based computer-security firm, iSIGHT Partners, has exposed today a three-year old cyber espionage campaign which they believe to have originated in Iran, targeting a number of military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries by creating false social networking accounts and a fake news website. The security firm dubbed the cyber espionage operation as ' Newscaster ', under which the iranian hackers are using more than a dozen social-media accounts of fake personas on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and targeted at least 2,000 people. Since 2011, the Iranian hackers group has targeted current and former senior U.S. military officials, including a four-star U.S. Navy ad

Iranian Ajax Security Team targets US Defense Industry

Iranian Ajax Security Team targets US Defense Industry
May 14, 2014
The Iranian hacking group, which calls itself the " Ajax Security Team ", was quite famous from last few years for websites defacement attacks , and then suddenly they went into dark since past few months. But that doesn't mean that the group was inactive, rather defacing the websites, the group was planning something bigger. The Group of hackers at Ajax Security Team last defaced a website in December 2013 and after that it transitioned to sophisticated malware-based espionage campaigns in order to target U.S. defense organizations and Iranian dissidents, according to the report released by FireEye researchers. " The transition from patriotic hacking to cyber espionage is not an uncommon phenomenon. It typically follows an increasing politicization within the hacking community, particularly around geopolitical events ," researchers Nart Villeneuve, Ned Moran, Thoufique Haq and Mike Scott wrote in the report. " This is followed by increasing links between the hacking

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl
Mar 21, 2024SaaS Security / Endpoint Security
In today's digital-first business environment dominated by SaaS applications, organizations increasingly depend on third-party vendors for essential cloud services and software solutions. As more vendors and services are added to the mix, the complexity and potential vulnerabilities within the  SaaS supply chain  snowball quickly. That's why effective vendor risk management (VRM) is a critical strategy in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to protect organizational assets and data integrity. Meanwhile, common approaches to vendor risk assessments are too slow and static for the modern world of SaaS. Most organizations have simply adapted their legacy evaluation techniques for on-premise software to apply to SaaS providers. This not only creates massive bottlenecks, but also causes organizations to inadvertently accept far too much risk. To effectively adapt to the realities of modern work, two major aspects need to change: the timeline of initial assessment must shorte

Tajikistan Domain Registrar hacked; Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Amazon also defaced

Tajikistan Domain Registrar hacked; Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Amazon also defaced
Jan 07, 2014
Google's primary search domain for Tajikistan had seemingly been hacked yesterday, along with other high profile domains including Yahoo, Twitter, Amazon -- redirected to a defaced page. Actually neither Google, nor Twitter servers have been hacked, rather website of Tajikistan's Domain registrar ( domain.tj ) authority has been hacked, that allows the hacker to access domain control panel. Server Kernel:  Linux mx.takemail.com 2.4.21-27.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Dec 1 21:59:02 EST 2004 i686 Iranian hacker ' Mr.XHat' successfully managed to change the DNS records of attack websites and defaced them for about a day. Hacker told ' The Hacker News ' that he used Directory Traversal vulnerability to hack the website and still has the access to the control panel. Directory traversal is a type of HTTP exploit that is used by attackers to gain unauthorized access to restricted directories and files. Following the screenshot of compromised Domain Registrar's Control Panel:

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Cryptocat, a Secure and Encrypted chat blocked in Iran

Cryptocat, a Secure and Encrypted chat blocked in Iran
Nov 24, 2013
Users in Iran call Internet as " Filternet ", because of the heavily censored Internet access they have. Million Iranians used VPN servers to access the outside world. In October, 2013 Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter asked Iranian President, ' Are citizens of Iran able to read your tweets? ' In Reply Mr. The President said that he will work to make sure Iranians have access to information globally in what appears to be a reference to reducing online censorship. Just after promising to support Internet Freedom, the Iran Government has banned yet another web application called -  Cryptocat , a tool that allows for secure and encrypted chat. The app is well known for bringing encrypted communications to the masses, popular with human rights activists and journalists around the world. According to ' Blockediniran.com ', Cryptocat website and the associated private chat service were inaccessible to our users in Iran. Currently since Monday.  ' It cu

Iranian Gmail users targeted by politically motivated phishing attack

Iranian Gmail users targeted by politically motivated phishing attack
Jun 13, 2013
Google says tens of thousands of Gmail accounts belonging to Iranian users have been targeted in an politically motivated hacking campaign in the weeks leading up to the country's closely watched presidential elections. For the last three weeks, the search giant said it has " detected and disrupted multiple email-based phishing campaigns aimed at compromising the accounts owned by tens of thousands of Iranian users. " " These campaigns, which originate from within Iran, represent a significant jump in the overall volume of phishing activity in the region, " Eric Grosse, Google's Vice President for Security Engineering. Phishing attacks are emails which appear official but instead lead users to websites where they are encouraged to reveal data including usernames, passwords, and credit card details. Google said it has a policy to alert users to " state-sponsored attacks and other suspicious activity ," but did not identify the perpetrators be

Iranian Hackers targeting US oil, gas, and electric companies

Iranian Hackers targeting US oil, gas, and electric companies
May 26, 2013
For all the talk about China and the Syrian Electronic Army, it seems there's another threat to U.S. cyber interests i.e Iran. Series of potentially destructive computer attacks that have been targeting American oil, gas and electricity companies tracked back to Iran. Iranian hackers were able to gain access to control-system software that could allow them to manipulate oil or gas pipelines. Malware have been found in the power grid that could be used to deliver malicious software to damage plants. The targets have included several American oil, gas and electricity companies, which government officials have refused to identify. The officials stated that the goal of the Iranian attacks is sabotage rather than espionage . Whereas, The cyber attacks from China however, are more aimed at stealing information from the U.S. government that is confidential, as well as from private business.  Mandiant announced that the Chinese government was backing the attacks. However, officials fr

Stuxnet is Back ! Iran reported another cyber attack

Stuxnet is Back ! Iran reported another cyber attack
Dec 26, 2012
Iran claims to have repelled a fresh cyber attack on its industrial units in a southern province. In the last few years, various Iranian industrial, nuclear and government bodies have recently come under growing cyber attacks, widely believed to be designed and staged by the US and Israel . A power plant and other industries in southern Iran have been targeted by the Stuxnet computer worm , an Iranian civil defense official says. Iran's news agency reported that the worm attacked the Culture Ministry's Headquarters for Supporting and Protecting Works of Art and Culture and was reportedly sent from Dallas via switches in Malaysia and Vietnam. This recent Stuxnet attack was successfully defeated, according to local Iranian civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan. " We were able to prevent its expansion owing to our timely measures and the cooperation of skilled hackers ," Akhavan said. The sophisticated worm spreads via USB drives and through four previously

Batchwiper malware, new virus targets Iranian computers

Batchwiper malware, new virus targets Iranian computers
Dec 18, 2012
Iranian CERT is sounding the alarm over another bit of data-deleting malware it's discovered on PCs in the country. Dubbed Batchwiper , the malware systematically wipes any drive partitions starting with the letters D through I Drive, along with any files stored on the Windows desktop of the user who is logged in when it's executed Why naming Batchwiper ?  The name was chosen because the malware is packed in a batch file. The malware initiates its data wiping routine on certain dates, the next one being Jan. 21 2013. However, the dates of Oct. 12, Nov. 12 and Dec. 12, 2012, were also found in the malware's configuration, suggesting that it may have been in distribution for at least two months. GrooveMonitor.exe is the original dropper, which is a self-extracting RAR file, once executed it extracts the following files: -- \WINDOWS\system32\SLEEP.EXE, md5: ea7ed6b50a9f7b31caeea372a327bd37 -- \WINDOWS\system32\jucheck.exe, md5: c4cd216112cbc5b8c046934843c579f6 -- \WIND

New U.S. drone hacked by IRAN ? Reality or propaganda?

New U.S. drone hacked by IRAN ? Reality or propaganda?
Dec 05, 2012
It's known, drones are privileged vehicles for reconnaissance and attacks, technology has achieved level of excellence and their use is largely diffused, that's why defense companies are providing new solution to make them increasingly effective. But the incredible amount of technological components could be itself a point of weakness, last year in fact an U.S. stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel drone was captured by Iranian military near the city of Kashmar. The vehicle was used in reconnaissance mission, it took off from near Afghanistan, exactly from Kandahar airfield. In this hours government of Teheran has announced to have captured a new drone, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi reported that on Dec. 5th Iranian defense has captured a Scan Eagle drone that violated the fly zone over the Persian Gulf, around Kharg Island, in southern Iran. The zone is a strategic area, the place provides a sea port for the export o

Hackers break into International Atomic Energy Agency servers

Hackers break into International Atomic Energy Agency servers
Nov 28, 2012
The UN nuclear watchdog has acknowledged one of its former computer servers had been hacked. The stolen information was contained in a statement by a group with an Iranian-sounding name calling for an inquiry into Israel's nuclear activities. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is investigating Iran's nuclear program. A group called Parastoo Farsi for the swallow bird and a common Iranian girl's name claimed responsibility for posting the names on its website two days ago. The group had been known to be critical of Israel's undeclared nuclear weapons program. " The IAEA deeply regrets this publication of information stolen from an old server that was shut down some time ago ," agency spokesperson said and agency experts had been working to eliminate any " possible vulnerability " in it even before it was hacked. Israel and the United States accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies, and says the Islamic state is th

Narilam malware target Iran Financial SQL Databases

Narilam malware target Iran Financial SQL Databases
Nov 27, 2012
Symantec recently identified a database-corrupting piece of malware targeting systems mostly in Iran, but despite early speculation that it could be related to the likes of Stuxnet and Flame, it appears to be targeting small businesses rather than the country's infrastructure. Malware Dubbed W32.Narilam , is predominantly active in the Middle East, and it has also been detected in the USA and UK. The worm looks for particular words in Microsoft SQL databases and overwrites them. The worm specifically targets SQL databases with three distinct names, alim, maliran, and shahd. Once the targeted databases are found, Narilam looks for specific objects and tables and either deletes the tables or replaces items with random values. On Monday an alert was published on tarrahsystem.com warning of the W32.Narilam threat to its customers. The bulk of the infections thus far have been found in the Middle East, particularly Iran and Afghanistan. Kaspersky Lab took issue with repo

IRAN : US Is the source of Cyber Terrorism

IRAN : US Is the source of Cyber Terrorism
Oct 30, 2012
An obscure group identifying itself as the Izz ad-din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters claimed responsibility for the first wave of attacks as retaliation for the amateurish Innocence of Muslims film that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammed and sparked protests throughout the Middle East.  Who's really responsible for a recent series of cyberattacks on American banks? A few days back US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran is responsible for cyberattacks launched against Saudi Aramco and RasGas and US banks. While Panetta did not directly link Iran to the Persian Gulf attacks, he later noted that Iran has " undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage. " Today, Iran's defense minister said, The United States is the source of cyber terrorism. " and intends to pave the way for increasing its activities in relation to cyber terrorism through diverting attention and leveling accusation, " Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. The Iranian defense minister also sai

Virus threat hit Israeli Foreign Ministry computers

Virus threat hit Israeli Foreign Ministry computers
Oct 26, 2012
A number of Israel's government offices have fallen victim to a cyber attack over the past week, one apparently aimed at slipping a "Trojan horse" into the computer servers at these ministries. Israeli police immediately pulled the national computer network from the civilian Internet after this cyber threat . A Trojan horse has been sent as files attached to emails bearing the name of the IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz in the subject line. According to the reports from haaretz ,A senior government clerk stressed that the threat facing the police was being investigated by experts. It is also not clear that either breach involved a wide-scale cyber-attack, or a virus infecting only a few computers. Government employees were advised not to open their emails or Facebook messages if such strange activity was noticed. Dozens of identical emails were sent Wednesday to Israel embassies abroad and to Foreign Ministry employees in Israel. The intelligence tip did not indicate t

US authorities : Iranian Hackers are Becoming a Real Pain

US authorities : Iranian Hackers are Becoming a Real Pain
Oct 14, 2012
The U.S. have admitted they believe a series of cyber attacks on domestic banks and some foreign oil companies carried out over the last year are the handy work of a group of hackers linked to the Iranian government. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the cyberthreat from Iran has grown, and declared that the Pentagon is prepared to take action if America is threatened by a computer-based assault. The hackers are apparently part of a group of less than 100 computer security specialists from Iranian universities and network security firms, according to an unnamed US government official. American officials have said they are able to discover the source of the recent cyberattacks. We do welcome this and announce our readiness for any international cooperation to find the source of the attacks. The Iranian official said Tehran has already offered help to boost the companies cybersecurity, as Iran has itself recently been the victim of cyberattacks on its offshore oil platforms. The c

Cyber attack on Iran's Internet system Disrupts Iran Internet

Cyber attack on Iran’s Internet system Disrupts Iran Internet
Oct 04, 2012
IRAN state official has said that Cyber attackers have targeted Iranian infrastructure and communications companies, disrupting the Internet across the country. " Yesterday we had a heavy attack against the country's infrastructure and communications companies which has forced us to limit the Internet ," Iran the world's no. 5 oil exporter, has tightened cyber security since its uranium enrichment centrifuges were hit in 2010 by the Stuxnet computer worm, which Tehran believes was planted by arch-adversaries Israel or the United States. Last week, the Islamic republic cut citizens' access to Gmail and the secure version of Google Search. Gmail has since been restored. Since sites such as Youtube and Facebook were used to organise mass anti-government protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back in 2009, the Iranian government has maintained one of the world's largest internet filters, blocking access to thousands of sites and IP address

Cyber Attacks on Six Major American Banks

Cyber Attacks on Six Major American Banks
Oct 01, 2012
According to reports, some of the United States biggest financial institutions  including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Bancorp were hit by a series of cyber attacks last week, by a group claiming Middle Eastern ties, that caused Internet blackouts and delays in online banking. The banks suffered denial-of-service attacks, in which hackers barrage a website with traffic until it is overwhelmed and shuts down. Such attacks, while a nuisance, are not technically sophisticated and do not affect a company's computer network or, in this case, funds or customer bank accounts. Hacktivists, calling themselves " Mrt. Izz ad-Din alQasssam Cyber Fighters ," attacked Wells Fargo and posted on Pastebin that U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group are next. The group said it had attacked the banks in retaliation for an anti-Islam video that mocks the Prophet Muhammad. It also pledged to continue to attack American credit and financial instit

Iran still on target of 'Mahdi' malware after detection

Iran still on target of 'Mahdi' malware after detection
Sep 03, 2012
In JULY Kaspersky Lab and Seculert revealed the presence of a new cyber-espionage weapon known targeting users in the Middle East. Despite the recent uncovering of the 'Madhi' malware that has infected several hundred computers in the Middle East, researchers say the virus is continuing to spread. The malware, known as 'Mahdi' or 'Madi', was originally discovered by Seculert. In addition to stealing data from infected Windows computers, it is also capable of monitoring email and instant messages, recording audio, capturing keystrokes and taking screenshots of victims' computers. Working together, researchers at Seculert and Kaspersky sinkholed the malware's command and control servers and monitored the campaign. What they found was a targeted attack that impacted more than 800 victims in Iran, Israel and other countries from around the globe. Israeli security company Seculert said it had identified about 150 new victims over the past six weeks as deve

Malware Attack on 2nd Largest Liquefied Natural Gas Producer

Malware Attack on 2nd Largest Liquefied Natural Gas Producer
Aug 31, 2012
Reports have surfaced that liquified natural gas (LNG) producer RasGas , based in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, has been struck by an unidentified virus, this time shutting down its website and email servers. The malware, however, did not affect the company's operational computers that control the production and delivery of gas, an official of the Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas company. The attack reportedly began Aug. 27. The RasGas website was still unavailable on Thursday, three days after the attack. For the second time in two weeks a virus outbreak has been reported at an energy company in that region. Earlier this week the Saudi Aramco oil company confirmed that its network was hit by a virus two weeks ago, shutting down 30,000 workstations. Neither company identified the virus, but in at least one of the cases it is believed to be malware known as "Shamoon." A joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, RasGas exports about 36.3 million tons of liq

Kaspersky Labs uncover 'Gauss' Espionage Malware hits Middle East banks

Kaspersky Labs uncover 'Gauss' Espionage Malware hits Middle East banks
Aug 10, 2012
A new cyber surveillance virus has been found in the Middle East that can spy on banking transactions and steal login and passwords, according Kaspersky Lab , a leading computer security firm. After Stuxnet, Duqu, and Flame, this one seems to mainly spy on computer users in Lebanon. It's been dubbed Gauss (although Germanic-linguistic purists will no doubt be complaining that it should be written Gauß). Gauss is a complex cyber-espionage toolkit, highly modular and supports new functions which can be deployed remotely by the operators in the form of plugins. The currently known plugins perform the following functions: Intercept browser cookies and passwords. Harvest and send system configuration data to attackers. Infect USB sticks with a data stealing module. List the content of the system drives and folders Steal credentials for various banking systems in the Middle East. Hijack account information for social network, email and IM accounts. The researchers at Russia-based Ka

Iranian nuclear program hit by AC/DC virus

Iranian nuclear program hit by AC/DC virus
Jul 24, 2012
A scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said computer systems have been hit by a cyber-attack which forced them to play AC/DC's Thunderstruck at full volume in the middle of the night. The attack came to light after a researcher at security firm F-Secure received a string of emails from a Iran's atomic energy organisation." I am writing you to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility Fordo near Qom. " " It does sound really weird ," he said. "If there was an attack, why would the attacker announce themselves by playing ' Thunderstruck? " If true, this attack is the third hacking attempt aimed at Tehran's controversial nuclear program. It sounds like the AEOI may have been hit with an infrastructure-targeting malware attack, similar to those that have plagued the Middle East since 201
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