DoNot APT Expands Operations, Targets European Foreign Ministries with LoptikMod Malware
Jul 09, 2025
Malware / Cyber Espionage
A threat actor with suspected ties to India has been observed targeting a European foreign affairs ministry with malware capable of harvesting sensitive data from compromised hosts. The activity has been attributed by Trellix Advanced Research Center to an advanced persistent threat (APT) group called DoNot Team , which is also known as APT-C-35, Mint Tempest, Origami Elephant, SECTOR02, and Viceroy Tiger. It's been assessed to be active since 2016. "DoNot APT is known for using custom-built Windows malware, including backdoors like YTY and GEdit, often delivered through spear-phishing emails or malicious documents," Trellix researchers Aniket Choukde, Aparna Aripirala, Alisha Kadam, Akhil Reddy, Pham Duy Phuc, and Alex Lanstein said . "This threat group typically targets government entities, foreign ministries, defense organizations, and NGOs especially those in South Asia and Europe." The attack chain commences with phishing emails that aim to trick rec...