APT (Targeted attacks)

In this report Kaspersky provides incident response statistics for 2021, as well as conclusions based on investigations of the real incidents.

Kimsuky (also known as Thallium, Black Banshee and Velvet Chollima) is a prolific and active threat actor primarily targeting Korea-related entities. In early 2022, we observed this group was attacking the media and a think-tank in South Korea.

ToddyCat APT and WinDealer man-on-the-side attack, Spring4Shell and other vulnerabilities, ransomware trends and our in-depth analysis of the TTPs of the eight most widespread ransomware families.

Earlier, the CISA published an alert related to a Stairwell report, “Maui Ransomware.” Our data should openly help solidify the attribution of the Maui ransomware incident to the Korean-speaking APT Andariel, also known as Silent Chollima and Stonefly.

Kaspersky ICS CERT experts detected a wave of targeted attacks in several East European countries, as well as Afghanistan. Of the six backdoors identified on infected systems, five have been used earlier in attacks attributed to APT TA428.

This is our latest summary of advanced persistent threat (APT) activity, focusing on events that we observed during Q2 2022.

In this report, we present a UEFI firmware rootkit that we called CosmicStrand and attribute to an unknown Chinese-speaking threat actor.

In early 2022, we investigated an IIS backdoor called SessionManager. It has been used against NGOs, government, military and industrial organizations in Africa, South America, Asia, Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

We want to familiarize the reader with the different stages of ransomware deployment and provide a visual guide to defending against targeted ransomware attacks.

ToddyCat is a relatively new APT actor responsible for multiple sets of attacks against high-profile entities in Europe and Asia. Its main distinctive signs are two formerly unknown tools that we call ‘Samurai backdoor’ and ‘Ninja Trojan’.

How is technical attribution carried out? What are the key challenges in conducting reliable technical attribution? How can this be more accessible to the multitude of stakeholders? Below are our reflections on these questions.

We have discovered that malware dubbed WinDealer, spread by Chinese-speaking APT actor LuoYu, has an ability to perform intrusions through a man-on-the-side attack.

Kaspersky IT threat review in Q1 2022: activity of APTs such as MoonBounce, BlueNororff, Lazarus and Roaming Mantis, attacks against Ukraine, phishing kits, Okta hack and more.

The Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report is out, where Kaspersky collaborated as a contributor. The report provides interesting analysis of a full amount of global incident data.

With this article, our core aim is to share a threat landscape overview, which Kaspersky cybersecurity researchers are observing in relation to the conflict, with the wider international community and thus to contribute to broader ongoing cyber-stability discussions of threat-related insights.