Security News
Twin cyber operations conducted by state-sponsored Iranian threat actors demonstrate their continued focus on compiling detailed dossiers on Iranian citizens that could threaten the stability of the Islamic Republic, including dissidents, opposition forces, and ISIS supporters, and Kurdish natives. Tracing the extensive espionage operations to two advanced Iranian cyber-groups Domestic Kitten and Infy, cybersecurity firm Check Point revealed new and recent evidence of their ongoing activities that involve the use of a revamped malware toolset as well as tricking unwitting users into downloading malicious software under the guise of popular apps.
Iranian cyber actors are likely behind a campaign that encouraged deadly violence against U.S. state officials certifying the 2020 election results. Titled "Enemies of the People," the website was created on December 6, and by the middle of the month included personal details of individuals that did not support the current U.S. President's claims of voter fraud.
In 1965, Gordon Moore published a short informal paper, Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Based on not much more but these few data points and his knowledge of silicon chip development - he was head of R&D at Fairchild Semiconductors, the company that was to seed Silicon Valley - he said that for the next decade, component counts by area could double every year.
The DarkSide Ransomware operation claims they are creating a distributed storage system in Iran to store and leak data stolen from victims. In this topic, DarkSide has stated that they are working on a distributed storage system to store and leak victims' stolen data.
All of the domains, seizure documents reveal, were violating U.S. sanctions against the government of Iran and the IRGC. Twenty-three of the domains were targeting audiences abroad. The other four, the U.S. Department of Justice reveals, were posing as news outlets, but were in fact controlled by the IRGC to target audiences in the United States. The purpose of these domains was to covertly influence U.S. policy and public opinion, thus violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation shared indicators of compromise associated with the Iranian state-sponsored threat group behind last week's Proud Boys voter intimidation emails that targeted Democratic voters. The threatening spoofed emails used the "Vote for Trump or Else" subject and warned voters registered as Democrats that they must vote for President Trump and change their party to Republican unless they want the Proud Boys far-right group to come after them.
The two conferences targeted include the Munich Security Conference, slated for Feb. 19 to 21, 2021 and the Think 20 Summit in Saudi Arabia, taking place Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 2020. Microsoft linked the attack, which targeted more than 100 conference attendees, to Phosphorus, which it said is operating from Iran.
The FBI and the US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Thursday issued a joint warning that a Kremlin hacking crew is probing or breaking into systems belonging to the US government and aviation industry. The joint advisory states that the team, known as Energetic Bear among other monikers, has been specifically going after US state, local, territorial, and tribal government networks, as well as aviation, since at least September 2020.
Federal officials claim that Iranian threat actors are behind two separate email campaigns that assailed Democratic voters this week with threats to "Vote for Trump or else." The campaigns claimed to be from violent extremist group Proud Boys. Two specific email campaigns - one on Tuesday Oct. 20 and one on Wednesday, Oct. 21 - threatened Democratic voters in Alaska, Arizona and Florida that attackers accessed "All of your information." They warned that there would be dire repercussions if voters didn't cast their ballot for President Trump in the upcoming election, according to a Wednesday Proofpoint report.
Menacing emails to Democratic voters, telling them to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming US elections or else, were sent by Iran, US intelligence claimed on Wednesday night. At a press conference tonight, Uncle Sam's Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said the messages were actually sent by Iranian agents, who had obtained US voter records, including contact details, seemingly to intimidate Americans.