Threat Intelligence Directory

Storm-0249 is an access broker active since 2021, known for distributing BazaLoader, IcedID, Bumblebee, and Emotet malware. The actor primarily employs phishing emails to deliver malware payloads, as evidenced by a campaign involving tax-themed emails that aimed to distribute BRc4 and Latrodectus malware. Storm-0249 has facilitated initial access for other threat actors, such as Storm-0501, by leveraging compromised credentials and exploiting known vulnerabilities in public-facing servers. Microsoft has detected malicious PDF attachments associated with Storm-0249's phishing campaigns.

The cyberattack campaign that Microsoft uncovered was launched by a China-linked hacking group called Storm-0062. According to the company, the group is launching cyberattacks by exploiting a vulnerability in the Data Center and Server editions of Confluence. Those are versions of the application that companies run on-premises.

[Stealth Falcon](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0038) is a threat group that has conducted targeted spyware attacks against Emirati journalists, activists, and dissidents since at least 2012. Circumstantial evidence suggests there could be a link between this group and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government, but that has not been confirmed. (Citation: Citizen Lab Stealth Falcon May 2016)

Starry Addax is a threat actor targeting human rights activists associated with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic using a novel mobile malware called FlexStarling. They conduct phishing attacks to trick targets into installing malicious Android applications and serve credential-harvesting pages to Windows-based targets. Their infrastructure targets both Windows and Android users, with the campaign starting with spear-phishing emails containing requests to install specific mobile apps or related themes. The campaign is in its early stages, with potential for additional malware variants and infrastructure development.

Stargazer Goblin is a threat actor group that operates the Stargazers Ghost Network on GitHub, distributing malware and malicious links through multiple accounts. They utilize compromised and created accounts to evade detection and quickly replace banned components to continue their operations. The group has been estimated to have earned approximately $100,000 from their malicious activities, offering a Distribution as a Service platform for other threat actors to distribute their malware. Stargazer Goblin has been involved in distributing various malware families, including Atlantida Stealer, Rhadamanthys, RisePro, Lumma Stealer, and RedLine.

Open-source reporting has claimed that the Hermes ransomware was developed by the North Korean group STARDUST CHOLLIMA (activities of which have been public reported as part of the “Lazarus Group”), because Hermes was executed on a host during the SWIFT compromise of FEIB in October 2017.

STAC5143 is a threat actor group tracked by Sophos, notable for its sophisticated use of Microsoft Office 365's legitimate services to conduct ransomware and data extortion campaigns. Unlike FIN7, which typically targets larger organizations through phishing and malicious Google Ads, STAC5143 focuses on smaller victims across diverse business sectors. Their operations begin with overwhelming targeted individuals with email bombing, followed by Microsoft Teams messages impersonating tech support to initiate a remote screen control session. Utilizing Microsoft's Quick Assist or direct Teams screen sharing, they deploy malware, including Java Archive (JAR) files and Python-based backdoors, from external SharePoint file stores. This cluster exploits legitimate services within the Microsoft Office 365 platform, using a Java-based proxy to execute PowerShell commands and download malicious payloads. While employing publicly available tools like RPivot, their obfuscation methods and the use of side-loaded DLLs for command and control, combined with the deployment of Black Basta ransomware in one instance, indicate a sophisticated and evolving threat actor adapting known techniques for their specific objectives.

SPIKEDWINE is a threat actor targeting European officials with a new backdoor called WINELOADER. They use a bait PDF document posing as an invitation letter from the Ambassador of India to lure diplomats. The attack is characterized by advanced tactics, techniques, and procedures in the malware and command and control infrastructure. The motivation behind the attacks seems to be exploiting the geopolitical relations between India and European nations.

Threat actor tracked by Malpedia.

ESET researchers have discovered a new undocumented modular backdoor, SideWalk, being used by an APT group they’ve named SparklingGoblin; this backdoor was used during one of SparklingGoblin’s recent campaigns that targeted a computer retail company based in the USA. This backdoor shares multiple similarities with another backdoor used by the group: CROSSWALK.

Sp1d3r, a threat actor, has been involved in multiple data breaches targeting companies like Truist Bank, Cylance, and Advance Auto Parts. They have stolen and attempted to sell sensitive information, including customer and employee emails, account numbers, and source code. Sp1d3r has also claimed to have obtained data from a third-party platform and a cloud storage vendor. They have utilized hacking forums to sell the stolen data for significant sums of money.

[Sowbug](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0054) is a threat group that has conducted targeted attacks against organizations in South America and Southeast Asia, particularly government entities, since at least 2015. (Citation: Symantec Sowbug Nov 2017)

SongXY is a Chinese APT group that employs phishing tactics to initiate cyberespionage campaigns. They utilize the Royal Road RTF builder, exploiting the CVE-2018-0798 vulnerability in Microsoft Equation Editor. In one instance, they sent a document containing a link to an attacker-controlled server, which automatically triggered upon opening, allowing them to gather information about the target's system configuration.

Solntsepek is a threat actor group with ties to the Russian military unit GRU. They have claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Kyivstar, a Ukrainian mobile operator, and have been linked to previous attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Solntsepek has been associated with the Sandworm hacking group, known for their destructive cyberattacks, including the NotPetya worm. They have also engaged in hostile activities, such as revealing personal details of Ukrainian soldiers.

SOLAR SPIDER’s phishing campaigns deliver the JSOutProx RAT to financial institutions across Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

In 2014, researchers at Kaspersky Lab discovered and reported on three zero-days that were being used in cyberattacks in the wild. Two of these zero-day vulnerabilities are associated with an advanced threat actor we call Animal Farm. Over the past few years, Animal Farm has targeted a wide range of global organizations. The group has been active since at least 2009 and there are signs that earlier malware versions were developed as far back as 2007.

SneakyChef is a threat actor known for using the SugarGh0st RAT to target government agencies, research institutions, and organizations worldwide. They have been active since at least August 2023, with a focus on leveraging old and new command and control domains. The group has been observed using lures in the form of scanned documents related to Ministries of Foreign Affairs and embassies. Talos Intelligence assesses with medium confidence that the operators are likely Chinese-speaking based on language preferences and specific targets.

While investigating some of the smaller name servers that APT28/Sofacy routinely use to host their infrastructure, Cylance discovered another prolonged campaign that appeared to exclusively target Japanese companies and individuals that began around August 2016. The later registration style was eerily close to previously registered APT28 domains, however, the malware used in the attacks did not seem to line up at all. During the course of our investigation, JPCERT published this analysis of one of the group’s backdoors. Cylance tracks this threat group internally as ‘Snake Wine’. The Snake Wine group has proven to be highly adaptable and has continued to adopt new tactics in order to establish footholds inside victim environments. The exclusive interest in Japanese government, education, and commerce will likely continue into the future as the group is just starting to build and utilize their existing current attack infrastructure.

The campaign, called SmugX, overlaps with previously reported activity by Chinese APT actors RedDelta and Mustang Panda. Although those two correlate to some extent with Camaro Dragon, there is insufficient evidence to link the SmugX campaign to the Camaro Dragon group. The campaign uses new delivery methods to deploy (most notably – HTML Smuggling) a new variant of PlugX, an implant commonly associated with a wide variety of Chinese threat actors. Although the payload itself remains similar to the one found in older PlugX variants, its delivery methods results in low detection rates, which until recently helped the campaign fly under the radar.

Mentioned as operator of SmokeLoader in CrowdStrike's 2020 Report.

The Smishing Triad is a Chinese-speaking threat group known for targeting postal services and their customers globally through smishing campaigns. They leverage compromised Apple iMessage accounts to send fraudulent messages warning of undeliverable packages, aiming to collect personally identifying information and payment credentials. The group offers smishing kits for sale on platforms like Telegram, enabling other cybercriminals to launch independent attacks. "Smishing Triad" has expanded its operations to target UAE citizens, using geo-filtering to focus on victims in the Emirates.

SloppyLemming is an advanced actor that uses multiple cloud service providers to facilitate different aspects of their activities, such as credential harvesting, malware delivery and command and control (C2). This actor conducts extensive operations targeting Pakistani, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and China. Industries targeted include government, law enforcement, energy, telecommunications, and technology entitie

SlopAds is a sophisticated ad fraud and click fraud operation involving a collection of 224 apps, downloaded over 38 million times globally. The threat actors utilize steganography, hidden WebViews, and a mobile marketing attribution platform to execute their fraud schemes, which include generating fraudulent ad impressions and clicks. Their infrastructure comprises multiple C2 servers and over 300 related domains, indicating plans for expansion. The operation has been linked to 2.3 billion bid requests per day, with significant traffic originating from the United States, India, and Brazil.

Threat actor tracked by Malpedia.

SkidSec is a threat group that has engaged in operations targeting exposed printers in South Korea to disseminate North Korean propaganda, utilizing techniques such as printer exploitation and social engineering for evidence collection. The group has also experienced a leadership change following the loss of their leader, Govadmin, while continuing to mobilize their followers for various missions. They have humorously solicited financial support for their activities, framing it as a means to support their cause. Additionally, they have been noted for their potential to leak sensitive information from compromised devices.

SingularityMD is a threat actor group that has targeted educational institutions in the US. They gained unauthorized access to their networks by exploiting weak security practices, such as using students' dates of birth as passwords. SingularityMD demanded a ransom in cryptocurrency and threatened to leak stolen information if not paid. They have demonstrated a willingness to follow through on their threats and have already leaked some data.

Threat actor tracked by Malpedia.

Sima is a group of suspected Iranian origin targeting Iranians in diaspora. In February 2016, Iran-focused individuals received messages purporting to be from Human RightsWatch's (HRW) Emergencies Director, requesting that they read an article about Iran pressing Afghanr efugees to fight in Syria. While referencing a real report published by HRW, the links provided for the Director’s biography and article directed the recipient to malware hosted elsewhere. These spear-phishing attempts represent an evolution of Iranian actors based on their social engineering tactics and narrow targeting. Although the messages still had minor grammatical and stylistic errors that would be obvious to a native speaker, the actors demonstrated stronger English-language proficiency than past intrusion sets and a deeper investment in background research prior to the attempt. The actors appropriated a real identity that would be expected to professionally interact with the subject, then offered validation through links to their biography and social media, the former of which itself was malware as well. The bait documents contained a real article relevant to their interests and topic referenced, and the message attempted to address to how it aligned with their professional research or field of employment. The referenced documents sent were malware binaries posing as legitimate files using the common right-to-left filenames tactic in order to conceal the actual file extension. All of these techniques, while common pretexting mechanisms, are a refinement compared to a tendency amongst other groups to simply continually send different forms of generic malware or phishing, in the hopes that one would eventually be successful.

[SilverTerrier](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0083) is a Nigerian threat group that has been seen active since 2014. [SilverTerrier](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0083) mainly targets organizations in high technology, higher education, and manufacturing.(Citation: Unit42 SilverTerrier 2018)(Citation: Unit42 SilverTerrier 2016)

SilverFish is believed to be a Russian cyberespionage group that has been involved in various cyberattacks, including the use of the SolarWinds breach as an attack vector. SilverFish has been linked to the Wasted Locker ransomware and has displayed a high level of skill and organization in their cyber operations. There are also connections between SilverFish and the threat actor Evil Corp, suggesting a possible evolution or collaboration between the two groups.

SilkSpecter is a Chinese financially motivated threat actor that orchestrates phishing campaigns targeting e-commerce shoppers, particularly during peak shopping seasons. They exploit legitimate payment processors like Stripe to exfiltrate Cardholder Data and Personally Identifiable Information through convincing fake e-commerce sites created using the oemapps SaaS platform. Their phishing infrastructure relies on Chinese-hosted CDN servers and utilizes deceptive elements such as the "trusttollsvg" icon and a "/homeapi/collect" endpoint to track victim interactions. Analysts have linked SilkSpecter to over 89 IP addresses and more than 4,000 domain names associated with phishing activities, predominantly using .top, .shop, .store, and .vip TLDs.

SILKFIN AGENCY has claimed responsibility for multiple significant data breaches, including the compromise of DimeCuba.com, which exposed over 1 million SMS records and more than 100,000 email records. They also targeted the Sri Lankan Department of Agrarian Development, allegedly compromising the personal and agricultural data of over 1.45 million farmers. Additionally, they claimed a breach of the Siam Cement Group's database. The breaches involved sensitive data such as NIC numbers and transaction details.

SilitNetwork is a hacking group known for targeting high-profile entities, such as airlines, for various motives. They utilize sophisticated tactics to breach their targets, potentially including social engineering and exploiting software vulnerabilities. The group's attack on RwandAir highlighted the vulnerability of the aviation industry and the need for robust cybersecurity measures.

[Silent Librarian](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0122) is a group that has targeted research and proprietary data at universities, government agencies, and private sector companies worldwide since at least 2013. Members of [Silent Librarian](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0122) are known to have been affiliated with the Iran-based Mabna Institute which has conducted cyber intrusions at the behest of the government of Iran, specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).(Citation: DOJ Iran Indictments March 2018)(Citation: Phish Labs Silent Librarian)(Citation: Malwarebytes Silent Librarian October 2020)

a relatively new threat actor that’s been operating since mid-2016 Group-IB has exposed the attacks committed by Silence cybercriminal group. While the gang had previously targeted Russian banks, Group-IB experts also have discovered evidence of the group's activity in more than 25 countries worldwide. Group-IB has published its first detailed report on tactics and tools employed by Silence. Group-IB security analysts' hypothesis is that at least one of the gang members appears to be a former or current employee of a cyber security company. The confirmed damage from Silence activity is estimated at 800 000 USD. Silence is a group of Russian-speaking hackers, based on their commands language, the location of infrastructure they used, and the geography of their targets (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Poland, and Kazakhstan). Although phishing emails were also sent to bank employees in Central and Western Europe, Africa, and Asia). Furthermore, Silence used Russian words typed on an English keyboard layout for the commands of the employed backdoor. The hackers also used Russian-language web hosting services.

FireEye recently looked deeper into the activity discussed in TrendMicro’s blog and dubbed the “Siesta” campaign. The tools, modus operandi, and infrastructure used in the campaign present two possibilities: either the Chinese cyber-espionage unit APT1 is perpetrating this activity, or another group is using the same tactics and tools as the legacy APT1. The Siesta campaign reinforces the fact that analysts and network defenders should remain on the lookout for known, public indicators and for shared attributes that allow security experts to detect multiple actors with one signature.

[SideCopy](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1008) is a Pakistani threat group that has primarily targeted South Asian countries, including Indian and Afghani government personnel, since at least 2019. [SideCopy](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G1008)'s name comes from its infection chain that tries to mimic that of [Sidewinder](https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0121), a suspected Indian threat group.(Citation: MalwareBytes SideCopy Dec 2021)

In September 2023, Cisco Talos identified a new malware family that it calls ‘HTTPSnoop’ being deployed against telecommunications providers in the Middle East. They also discovered a sister implant to 'HTTPSnoop,’ that they are naming ‘PipeSnoop,’ which can accept arbitrary shellcode from a named pipe and execute it on the infected endpoint. Based on these findings, the researchers assess with high confidence that both implants belong to a new intrusion set that it named ‘ShroudedSnooper.’

SharpPanda, an APT group originating from China, has seen a rise in its cyber-attack operations starting from at least 2018. The APT group utilizes spear-phishing techniques to obtain initial access, employing a combination of outdated Microsoft Office document vulnerabilities, novel evasion techniques, and highly potent backdoor malware.

This group's activity was first observed in November 2013. It leverages a banking Trojan more commonly known as Shylock which aims to compromise online banking credentials and credentials related to Bitcoin wallets.