A recent phishing campaign targets highly skilled technology workers in the aerospace and defense industries. Seen here, a spacecraft in production from Ball Aerospace. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

A phishing lure disguised as a legitimate inquiry by a recruiter for a new job opportunity inserts a malicious template into an attached Word document, which then gathers intelligence on the target, usually a highly-skilled technology worker in the aerospace and defense industries.

The attack, dubbed Operation North Star, was discovered by researchers in McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research team. In a recent blog post, the researchers indicated that the attackers were mainly trying to gain intelligence on targeted high-tech workers.

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