RUSSIA AND IRAN-BASED HACKER GROUPS TARGETING JOURNALISTS AND POLITICIANS, UK WARNS

Thu 26 January 2023:

The UK has issued a warning that the country has been the target of an extensive and ongoing information collection campaign by the hacking group Cold River, which is based in Russia.

According to a warning from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the group has already targeted several institutions in politics, government, academia, defense, journalism, and activism. It further stated that Iranian hackers are involved.

The organization, which is a division of Britain’s GCHQ spying agency, claimed that hackers primarily target those who conduct research and study on Iran and Russia.

According to studies, hackers use phony social media identities and email addresses to target and mimic the people in their immediate vicinity.

“There is often some correspondence between attacker and target, sometimes over an extended period, as the attacker builds rapport,” the advisory said.

They then send fake invites to events or Zoom meetings containing malicious code. If the user clicks on the link, he is tricked into entering his login credentials on a website controlled by the group, the advisory said. This compromises their accounts and lets the hacker gain access to sensitive information.

An Iran-based group, known as Charming Kitten, has also used the same “spear-phishing” techniques to gather information, according to the NCSC. Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said the Iranian government knows nothing about the group.

According to the report, the hackers have access to the victim’s email accounts, , “from where they are known to access and steal emails and attachments from the victim’s inbox.”

According to a Reuters report, three nuclear research institutes in the United States were the target of Cold River, also known as “Callisto” and “Seaborgium,” last summer. Additionally, it made private emails from Richard Dearlove, a former British spymaster, public in May.

The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the warning by calling it anti-Russian propaganda.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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