Iranian Hackers Launch Destructive Cyber Attacks on Israeli Tech and Education Sectors
Nov 06, 2023
Cyber War / Malware
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 Agonizing Serpens, which is also known as Agrius, BlackShadow and Pink Sandstorm (previously Americium). "The attacks are characterized by attempts to steal sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII) and intellectual property," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said in a new report shared with The Hacker News. "Once the attackers stole the information, they deployed various wipers intended to cover the attackers' tracks and to render the infected endpoints unusable." This includes three different novel wipers such as MultiLayer, PartialWasher, and BFG Agonizer, as well as a bespoke tool to extract inf...