Malware Spy Network Targeted Israelis, Palestinians
Summary: Researchers at Oslo-based Norman ASA uncovered a Middle Eastern espionage network that spent a year deploying malware against Israeli and Palestinian targets, with the oldest malicious files bearing a forged Microsoft certificate created in October 2011. Norman's Snorre Fagerland traced dozens of targeted email attacks to a shared framework, common control servers, and the same spoofed certificate, with early Arabic-language lures tied to Palestinian news issues and a later pivot to Israeli targets that moved control servers to networks in the United States.
What you should know: Fagerland's finding that the same entity spied on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict suggests an actor with intelligence needs against both parties, operating off-the-shelf tools like Blackshades, XtremeRAT and Dark Comet rather than state-grade custom malware.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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