Technology

Russian hacking group APT28 also focused on Italian military

Analysts have asserted the notorious APT28 Kremlin-connected hacking group was behind another cyber espionage battel they accept was focused at the Italian military. Security analysts from the Z-Lab at CSE Cybsec spent the end of the week unpicking another malware-base cyber espionage crusade supposedly led by APT28 (AKA Fancy Bear).

The multi-stage campaign includes an initial dropper malware, written in Delphi, and another rendition of the X-agent indirect access, a strain of malevolent code already connected to APT28. One malicious library (dll) record related with the campaign telephones home to a command and-control server with the name “marina-info.net”. This is a reference to the Italian Military corp, Marina Militare, as indicated by the scientists.

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“The dll that connect[s] to ‘marina-info.net’ might be the last stage-malware that is triggered only when particular conditions occur, for example when the malware infects a system with an IP address belonging to specific ranges,” claimed to the researchers.

The Russian state-sponsored programmers might target particular associations including the Italian Marina Militare and its subcontractors, the scientists concluded. The focusing of Italian associations amid the mid year drove the specialists to epithet the campaign “Roman Holiday”.

Scientists from Z-Lab worked with independent researcher Drunk Binary (@DrunkBinary) on malware tests seen in the wild and transferred them to VirusTotal as they set up together their investigation.

Additionally points of interest on the malware tests dissected by CSE Cybsec, including the signs of compromise, are accessible in a report distributed by scientists at ZLAb here (pdf). The APT28 hacking team has been dynamic since no less than 2007, since when it has focused on governments, militaries, and different associations around the world.

The gathering – recognized by Western intel offices as a unit of Russian military knowledge, the GRU – has additionally been charged to be behind assaults on the German Bundestag, French TV station TV5Monde and (most famously) a hack campaign that focused the US Democrats amid the 2016 US presidential decision.

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