Security News

OpenAI Blocks Iranian Influence Operation Using ChatGPT for U.S. Election Propaganda
2024-08-17 06:38

OpenAI on Friday said it banned a set of accounts linked to what it said was an Iranian covert influence operation that leveraged ChatGPT to generate content that, among other things, focused on...

Iranian Hackers Deploy New BugSleep Backdoor in Middle East Cyber Attacks
2024-07-16 09:13

The Iranian nation-state actor known as MuddyWater has been observed using a never-before-seen backdoor as part of a recent attack campaign, shifting away from its well-known tactic of deploying legitimate remote monitoring and management software for maintaining persistent access. "Compared to previous campaigns, this time MuddyWater changed their infection chain and did not rely on the legitimate Atera remote monitoring and management tool as a validator," Sekoia said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

Iranian MOIS-Linked Hackers Behind Destructive Attacks on Albania and Israel
2024-05-20 16:05

An Iranian threat actor affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has been attributed as behind destructive wiping attacks targeting Albania and Israel under the personas...

Iranian hackers pose as journalists to push backdoor malware
2024-05-04 14:17

The Iranian state-backed threat actor tracked as APT42 is employing social engineering attacks, including posing as journalists, to breach corporate networks and cloud environments of Western and Middle Eastern targets. Google threat analysts following APT42's operations report that the hackers use malicious emails to infect their targets with two custom backdoors, namely "Nicecurl" and "Tamecat," which provide command execution and data exfiltration capabilities.

US charges Iranians with cyber snooping on government, companies
2024-04-24 14:01

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U.S. Treasury Sanctions Iranian Firms and Individuals Tied to Cyber Attacks
2024-04-24 13:43

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Monday sanctioned two firms and four individuals for their involvement in malicious cyber activities on behalf of the...

US govt sanctions Iranians linked to government cyberattacks
2024-04-23 18:40

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned four Iranian nationals for their involvement in cyberattacks against the U.S. government, defense contractors, and private companies. Entities at least 50% owned by blocked persons are also subject to freeze, and transactions involving their assets are prohibited without OFAC authorization, while financial institutions and other organizations dealing with sanctioned individuals and companies also risk exposure to sanctions or enforcement actions.

Iranian MuddyWater Hackers Adopt New C2 Tool 'DarkBeatC2' in Latest Campaign
2024-04-12 09:49

The Iranian threat actor known as MuddyWater has been attributed to a new command-and-control (C2) infrastructure called DarkBeatC2, becoming the latest such tool in its arsenal...

U.S. Charges Iranian Hacker, Offers $10 Million Reward for Capture
2024-03-02 04:38

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday unsealed an indictment against an Iranian national for his alleged involvement in a multi-year cyber-enabled campaign designed to compromise U.S....

Iranian charged over attacks against US defense contractors, government agencies
2024-03-01 18:30

The US Department of Justice has unsealed an indictment accusing an Iranian national of a years-long campaign that compromised hundreds of thousands of accounts and attempting to infiltrate US defense contractors and multiple government agencies. "Nasab participated in a cyber campaign using spear phishing and other hacking techniques to infect more than 200,000 victim devices, many of which contained sensitive or classified defense information," said Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.