I've been writing about technology for most of my adult life, focusing mainly on legal and regulatory issues. I write for a wide range of publications: credits include the Times, Daily Telegraph and Financial Times newspapers, as well as BBC radio and numerous technology titles.
A hacking group that may be Russia -backed has been targeting Russia n and Belarusian non-profit organizations, Russia n independent media, international NGOs and at least one former U.S. ambassador. Access Now , the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, First Department, Arjuna Team, and Resident.
ngo, said they have uncovered at least two separate spear-phishing campaigns. One, they attribute to a known Russian threat group called Coldriver, also known as Star Blizzard or Callisto, and thought to be linked to the Russian government. The other, they believe, comes from a previously-unnamed group that they have dubbed 'Coldwastrel'.kicked off in March last year when Access Now was alerted by Russian human rights organization First Department to a phishing email that had been received by several international NGOs. The sender impersonated a staff member using the Proton Mail platform. Other similar alerts followed. The most common attack pattern involved a carefully-tailored email sent either from a compromised account or from an account appearing similar to the real account of someone the victim may have known. The emails were personalized to reflect the recipients' day-to-day work, mentioning topics such as event planning or financial discussions. The attacks also typically included a seemingly locked PDF attachment, sometimes with a link purporting to help 'unlock' the PDF’s content, but which in fact led to fake login pages aimed at harvesting the target’s information.Why Fans Think ‘It Ends With Us’ Stars Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni Are Feuding—As Baldoni Reportedly Hires Crisis PRAnd, said Access Now,"While investigating the attacks, we discovered that an IP address used by the attacker was linked to domains impersonating several prominent civil society organizations active in Eastern Europe." While some targets resisted falling for the scam, others were fooled into entering their user credentials, meaning it's likely that attackers were able to gain unauthorized access to their email accounts. "If successful, such attacks could be enormously harmful, particularly to Russian and Belarusian organizations and independent media, since their email accounts are likely to contain sensitive information about their staff’s identities, activities, relationships, and whereabouts," said Access Now. "Any contact between Russian NGOs or independent media with Western-based organizations could be used as a pretext by the Russian government to designate them as a 'foreign agent' or 'undesirable organization'.Most of the targets have chosen to remain anonymous. However, they include prominent Russian opposition figures-in-exile, staff at non-governmental organizations in the US and Europe, funders, and media organizations. There's a focus on Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus in all the cases. One target was Polina Machold, publisher of Proekt Media, which conducts high profile investigative reporting into official corruption and abuses of power in Russia. Another was former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer, who was targeted with a highly-credible approach impersonating someone known to him—a fellow former U.S. ambassador. "We judge that these targets may have been selected for their extensive networks among sensitive communities, such as high-risk individuals within Russia," said Access Now. "Importantly, we suspect that the total pool of targets is likely much larger than the civil society groups whose cases we have analyzed. We have observed US government personnel impersonated as part of this campaign, and given prior reporting about Coldriver'’s targeting, we expect the US government remains a target."from cybersecurity bodies in the U.S and several other countries, which identified it as a subordinate of the Russian Federal Security Service’s Centre 18.Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kindContinuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejectedAttempts or tactics that put the site security at riskProtect your community.
Citizen Labs Coldriver Coldwastrel Spear-Phishing Russia
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