Security News > 2022 > July > Journalists Emerge as Favored Attack Target for APTs
According to the report, the APTs are acting independently of each other but share the same overall goal of targeting journalists.
Often posing as journalists themselves, the threat actors have focused on phishing campaigns with the goal of credential harvesting, theft of data helpful to specific regimes and digital surveillance of political journalists.
"APT actors, regardless of their state affiliation, have and will likely always have a mandate to target journalists and media organizations and will use associated personas to further their objectives and collection priorities," researchers wrote.
According to researchers, the APT has been actively targeting journalists since early 2022, via Twitter accounts in efforts to steal credentials from mainly U.S.-based journalists and media organizations.
Iran-linked APTs have been particularly active on their assault against journalists and newspapers, typically posing as journalists themselves in attacks to engage in surveillance against targets and harvest their credentials, Proofpoint has found.
This group is notorious for masquerading as journalists from around the world to target journalists, academics and researchers alike by engaging in discussion about.