{"id":90006,"date":"1999-12-31T00:49:00","date_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartoffice.com.au\/cyber-mercenaries-target-tech-cos\/"},"modified":"1999-12-31T00:49:00","modified_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:49:00","slug":"cyber-mercenaries-target-tech-cos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/cyber-mercenaries-target-tech-cos\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber-Mercenaries Target Tech Co&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Security analysts discovered &#8220;Icefog&#8221;, an APT group targeting supply chainsSecurity analysts Kaspersky Lab&#8217;s have reported the discovery of &#8220;Icefog&#8221;, an APT group targeting companies in South Korea and Japan, which is ultimately, hitting Western supply chains.&nbsp;Many sinkhole connections were also observed in Australia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>These cyber-mercenaries for hire have now emerged &#8211; smaller hit-and-run gangs that &#8220;go after information with surgical precision&#8221;, the security experts have warned.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The attackers are targeting the tech industry, in particular &#8211; computer and software development, telecom and satellite operators, mass media including Korea Telecom and Fuji TV.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The end result is hitting Western companies supply chains.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Military, shipbuilding and maritime operations are also under attack.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The attackers hijack sensitive documents and company plans, e-mail account credentials, and passwords to access various resources within and outside the corporate victim&#8217;s network.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Such cyber attacks usually lasts for a few days or weeks and after, the gangs clean up the leave without a trace.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Those cyber mercenaries are thought to be based in China, South Korea and Japan. &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Kaspersky researchers have sinkholed 13 of the 70+ domains used by the attackers, and&nbsp;<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">observed more than 4,000 unique infected IPs and several hundred victims (a few dozen Windows victims and more than 350 Mac OS X victims).&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The &#8216;Icefog&#8217; command and control servers maintain encrypted logs of their victims together with the various operations performed on them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"NFBreak\" style=page-break-before: always contenteditable=\"false\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Andrew Mamonitis, Kaspersky Lab ANZ&#8217;s Managing Director, says cyber networks often exploit the most vulnerable entry points by using corporate networks as a platform from which to access other channels.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In most cases, auxiliary companies have more relaxed security parameters in place despite holding valuable data about the parent target.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is these secondary business service providers across the corporate chain which are most vulnerable to external breaches.In the future, the number of small, focused &#8216;APT-to-hire&#8217; groups specialising in hit-and-run operations are set to grow.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Find out more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.securelist.com\/en\/analysis\/204792307\/The_Icefog_APT_Frequently_Asked_Questions\">about Icefrog here<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Security analysts discovered &#8220;Icefog&#8221;, an APT group targeting supply chains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-archive","category-services","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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