Security News
The Russia-linked Gamaredon group attempted to unsuccessfully break into a large petroleum refining company within a NATO member state earlier this year amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. The attack, which took place on August 30, 2022, is just one of multiple attacks orchestrated by the advanced persistent threat that's attributed to Russia's Federal Security Service.
Japan's Ministry of Defence announced on Friday that it has formally joined NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence. The CCDCOE is recognized as an international military organization and cyber defence hub focusing on research, training and exercises, like its yearly red team versus blue team cyber war game, Locked Shields.
The Armed Forces General Staff agency of Portugal has suffered a cyberattack that allegedly allowed the theft of classified NATO documents, which are now sold on the dark web. EMGFA is the government agency responsible for the control, planning, and operations of the armed forces of Portugal.
NATO officials are investigating after criminals put up some data for sale on dark forums that they claim is "Classified" information stolen from European missile maker MBDA. MBDA has denied any sensitive material has been compromised and said it had refused to pay the gang a ransom, claiming the data for sale was obtained from an "External hard drive" rather than its systems. According to the BBC, which saw samples of the files and has reportedly spoken to the miscreants, 80GB of data - which it was unable to verify - is being offered up for 15 Bitcoins, or approximately $297,000, and the extortionists claim to have made at least one sale.
The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center has disrupted a hacking and social engineering operation linked to a Russian threat actor tracked as SEABORGIUM that targets people and organizations in NATO countries. "Within the target countries, SEABORGIUM primarily focuses operations on defense and intelligence consulting companies, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations, think tanks, and higher education," explains Microsoft in a report released today.
At the recent meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Madrid, NATO heads of state agreed to boost resilience to cyber and hybrid threats. NATO members will strengthen their cyber defenses through enhanced civil-military cooperation, and expand industry partnerships.
A Russian cybercrime gang has lately sent credential-phishing emails to the military of Eastern European countries and a NATO Center of Excellence, according to a Google threat report this week. One of these crews is Coldriver, which the Google team refer to as "a Russian-based threat actor." According to Leonard, Google hasn't seen attackers successfully compromise any Gmail accounts in its phishing campaigns.
The Google Threat Analysis Group says more and more threat actors are now using Russia's war in Ukraine to target Eastern European and NATO countries, including Ukraine, in phishing and malware attacks. The report's highlight are credential phishing attacks coordinated by a Russian-based threat group tracked as COLDRIVER against a NATO Centre of Excellence and Eastern European militaries.
Russia's ambassador to Estonia today compared Ukraine's participation in NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence intel-sharing cyberdefense hub to an attempt at blackmail. Although being accepted as a contributing participant, this does not make Ukraine a NATO member, but it will most likely tighten collaboration and will also allow it to gain access to NATO members' cyber-expertise and share its own.
While Ukraine is yet to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the country has been accepted as a contributing participant to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. Although this does not make Ukraine a NATO member, it will likely tighten collaboration and allow it to gain access to NATO member nations' cyber-expertise and share its own.