Threats Feed

APT42 has launched a series of phishing attacks targeting Middle Eastern studies researchers, defense sector officials, and institutions specializing in Iran across Israel and the U.S. The phishing messages were highly personalized, containing malicious links disguised as Zoom invitations and documents. APT42’s tactics included impersonating researchers and reputable organizations to enhance credibility and evade detection. The campaign underscores ongoing cyber espionage efforts by Iranian actors focused on intelligence gathering in academia, defense, and foreign policy sectors, impacting both governmental and research entities.

Since June 2024, the Iranian-linked threat group Charming Kitten (APT42) has continued to build phishing infrastructure, identified as Cluster B, to target individuals perceived as threats to the Iranian regime, including researchers, journalists, NGO leaders, and human rights activists. The group registered several new domains, likely intended to host credential phishing pages that masquerade as Google, YouTube, and file-hosting service login portals. Past campaigns have targeted individuals in the U.S., Israel, and Europe, primarily in the research, media, and academic sectors. The phishing emails often contain malicious links disguised as conference invitations or legitimate documents.

Mandiant has uncovered an Iranian counterintelligence operation aimed at gathering data on Iranians and domestic threats potentially collaborating with foreign intelligence agencies, particularly in Israel. The operation involved fake recruitment websites, disseminated via social media, that lured Farsi-speaking individuals into providing personal and professional details. This data is likely used to identify and persecute Iranian dissidents, activists, and human rights advocates. The campaign, linked to Iran’s IRGC and APT42, operated from 2017 to 2024 and extends beyond Iran to target individuals connected to Syria and Hezbollah.

APT42 used fake WhatsApp accounts posing as technical support from AOL, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft companies to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the United Kingdom. Targets included political and diplomatic officials, as well as public figures associated with the Biden and Trump administrations. The campaign, identified through user reports, included phishing attempts but did not result in account compromise. APT42 is known for phishing credential theft, with previous campaigns targeting public officials, activists and academics.

APT42 used fake WhatsApp accounts posing as technical support from AOL, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft companies to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the United Kingdom. Targets included political and diplomatic officials, as well as public figures associated with the Biden and Trump administrations. The campaign, identified through user reports, included phishing attempts but did not result in account compromise. APT42 is known for phishing credential theft, with previous campaigns targeting public officials, activists and academics.

APT42 has intensified its phishing campaigns against Israel and the U.S., targeting high-profile individuals in the military, defense, diplomatic, academic, and NGO sectors. The group uses spearphishing emails, typosquatting domains, and social engineering tactics to harvest credentials and gain unauthorized access to accounts. Recent campaigns included the use of benign PDF attachments and phishing kits capable of bypassing multi-factor authentication.

TA453, also known as Charming Kitten, has targeted sectors such as academia, defence, government, NGOs, think tanks and journalists in the UK and other regions of interest. The group uses spear phishing attacks, using open source reconnaissance to create tailored phishing emails. These emails are often sent from fake social media profiles or compromised email accounts. Once a relationship has been established, TA453 directs victims to malicious links or documents and steals credentials upon interaction. The group also exploits compromised email accounts to steal sensitive data, set up mail forwarding rules and facilitate further surveillance and future attacks.