Security News > 2021 > March > Google: North Korean hackers target security researchers again

Google's Threat Analysis Group says that North Korean government-sponsored hackers are once again targeting security researchers using fake Twitter and LinkedIn social media accounts.

The hackers also created a website for a fake company named SecuriElite and supposedly offering offensive security services as the Google security team focused on hunting down state-backed hackers discovered on March 17.

Just as in the attacks detected during January 2021, this site was also hosting the attackers' PGP public key, which was used as bait to infect security researchers with malware after triggering a browser exploit on opening the page.

In January, North Korean state hackers tracked as the Lazarus Group targeted security researchers in social engineering attacks using elaborate fake "Security researcher" social media personas.

Some researchers using fully patched Windows 10 computers and running the latest Google Chrome version were infected in the attacks, indicating that the hackers were using zero-day vulnerabilities to compromise the targets' devices.

An additional Internet Explorer zero-day was discovered by South Korean cybersecurity firm ENKI after failed attacks on their security researchers.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-north-korean-hackers-target-security-researchers-again/