Updated on 2022-12-12: Phosphorus APT brazenness
Researchers with Team Cymru say that even if one of their servers was exposed in a CISA alert in September, Phosphorus, an Iranian threat actor group, has continued to use it for subsequent attacks throughout October and November 2022. Read more:
- Alert (AA22-257A): Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploiting Vulnerabilities for Data Extortion and Disk Encryption for Ransom Operations
- Iranian Exploitation Activities Continue as of November 2022
Overview
Microsoft is warning about Iranian APT group Phosphorous, which is know to quickly adopt new vulnerabilities into its toolchain. They say the main workflow is to look for internet-facing flaws in Exchange, Fortinet, log4j, to use those to scan the network and collect credentials, and then to establish persistence using scheduled tasks. From there they’ve been seen asking for an $8,000 ransom around 2 days after digging in. Read more: Microsoft Warns of Ransomware Attacks by Iranian Phosphorus Hacker Group
Alex Lim
Alex Lim is a certified IT Technical Support Architect with over 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting complex IT systems and networks. He has worked for leading IT companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, providing technical support and solutions to clients across various industries and sectors. Alex has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore and a master’s degree in information security from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the author of several best-selling books on IT technical support, such as The IT Technical Support Handbook and Troubleshooting IT Systems and Networks. Alex lives in Bandar, Johore, Malaysia with his wife and two chilrdren. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Website | Twitter | Facebook
