Security News > 2020 > September > Hackers Continue Cyberattacks Against Vatican, Catholic Orgs

A state-sponsored threat group linked to China has been engaged in a five-month long cyberattack against the Vatican and other Catholic Church-related organizations.

"RedDelta has largely remained unperturbed by the extensive public reporting on its targeting of the Vatican and other Catholic organizations," according to researchers with Recorded Future's Insikt Group in a report released Tuesday.

It is unclear whether the group was able to successfully regain access to the Vatican network - however, the attempts to do so, as well as the emergence of a new RedDelta Catholic church-themed lure, highlights an overarching focus of the China Communist Party seeking increased oversight of the Catholic community within China they said.

Previously, the threat group had centralized on Catholic-focused lure documents, including one purporting to be an official Vatican letter addressed to the current head of the Hong Kong Study Mission to China and one spoofing a news bulletin from the Union of Catholic Asian News regarding the impending introduction of the new Hong Kong national security law.

"The group's reuse of publicly reported infrastructure and TTPs is likely indicative of a group experiencing operational success and highlights a pragmatic approach to operational security, with RedDelta willing to continue to use publicly known infrastructure as long as access is maintained," said researchers.

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https://threatpost.com/hackers-continue-cyberattacks-against-vatican-catholic-orgs/159306/