Critical Infrastructure Security, Threat Intelligence

Iranian officials behind water system attacks sanctioned

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpss Cyber-Electronic Command Head Hamid Reza Lashgarian and five other officials of the IRGC-EC have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for their involvement in last year's cyberattacks against U.S. water systems that were claimed by Iranian hacking group Cyber Av3ngers, reports Nextgov. Attacks by Cyber Av3ngers, which compromised the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa in Pennsylvania and 10 other water utilities, involved the targeting of programmable logic controllers by Israeli firm Unitronics in retaliation to the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. "Although this particular operation did not disrupt any critical services, unauthorized access to critical infrastructure systems can enable actions that harm the public and cause devastating humanitarian consequences," said the Treasury Department. Such a development comes after Congress was urged by various water trade groups to bolster federal funding and cyber training programs in water facilities.

Related

Details on 2021 Chemonics hack remain scant

International development firm Chemonics, which mainly caters to the United States Agency of International Development, has not yet provided more extensive information regarding a cyberattack that compromised more than 6,000 individuals initially reported in July 2021, reports FedScoop.

Media, think tank, service spoofing conducted in APT42 cyberespionage operations

Iranian state-backed hacking operation APT42 — also known as Mint Sandstorm, Mint Phosphorous, Charming Kitten, and TA453 — has spoofed major news organizations, including The Washington Post, think tanks, such as the McCain Institute, and internet services, such as Gmail, YouTube, and Google Drive, as part of cyberespionage campaigns against journalists and human rights activists, reports CyberScoop.

Feds warn of new Kimsuky phishing attack techniques

The U.S. State Department, National Security Agency, and the FBI have issued a joint advisory warning organizations across the country, especially educational entities, non-profits, and think tanks, regarding the increasingly advanced phishing techniques leveraged by North Korean state-backed hacking group Kimsuky, also known as APT43, Emerald Sleet, and Velvet Chollima, Nextgov reports.

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