Security News > 2021 > April > Russia-Linked 'Ghostwriter' Disinformation Campaign Tied to Cyberspy Group
A widespread disinformation campaign dubbed Ghostwriter is believed to be the work of a state-sponsored cyber-espionage group, cybersecurity firm FireEye reported on Wednesday.
Between October 2020 and January 2021, FireEye's researchers identified five new Ghostwriter operations conducted in both Polish and English, but which were not aligned with previous activity that relied on compromised websites, spoofed emails, fake personas, and NATO-themed content.
One Ghostwriter operation that did fall in line with previously observed activity promoted for several days in October 2020 content suggesting that NATO was getting its military ready for a war with Russia, and that the battle would take place in Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania.
"We assess with high confidence that UNC1151, a suspected state-sponsored cyber espionage group, conducts at least some components of Ghostwriter influence activity; current intelligence gaps, including gaps pertaining to website compromises and the operation of false personas, do not allow us to conclusively attribute all aspects of the Ghostwriter campaign to UNC1151 at this time," FireEye says.
The group tracked by FireEye as UNC1151, which has not been linked to any known threat actor, has been running operations aimed at credential harvesting and malware delivery through spear phishing attacks.
The credentials stealing attacks targeted government, military, and media organizations in Poland, Ukraine, and Baltic countries, but the group was also observed attempting to compromise the accounts of other entities of interest, including journalists and activists.