Using Employment Offers, North Korean Hackers Target Security Researchers

 

Security experts have been the victim of a hacking campaign by threat actors associated with the North Korean government that use cutting-edge methods and malware in an effort to infiltrate the organizations the targets work for, according to researchers.
As per researchers from security company Mandiant, they first became aware of the activity in June of last year while monitoring a phishing attempt that was aimed at a US-based client in the technology sector. By using three new malware families—Touchmove, Sideshow, and Touchshift—the hackers in this effort aimed to infect targets. In addition, while operating inside the cloud environments of their targets, the hackers in these assaults displayed new ability to evade endpoint detection technologies.
In order to communicate with their victims using WhatsApp, the attackers utilize social engineering to persuade them to do so. It is at this point that the malware payload ‘PlankWalk’ with a C++ backdoor, which aids in infiltrating the corporate environment of the target, is delivered.
In this operation, Mandiant believed UNC2970 targeted specifically security researchers. The North Korean threat actor, UNC2970, repeatedly breached US and European media organizations, prompting a reaction from Mandiant. In an effort to lure the targets and deceive them into installing the new virus, UNC2970 used spearphishing with a job adv

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