Trend Micro researchers David Sancho and Nart Villeneuve have written up an interesting attack they’ve dubbed LURID on diplomatic missions, government ministries, space-related government agencies and other companies and research institutions in the former Soviet bloc and its allies. (Only China was not a Soviet bloc member or ally in the list, and it was the least affected by the attack.)
Although they don’t say, or speculate, about the attacker, it’s not hard to conclude who might be particularly interested in what the attacks are able to dig up:
Although our research didn’t reveal precisely which data was being targeted, we were able to determine that, in some cases, the attackers attempted to steal specific documents and spreadsheets.
Russia had 1,063 IP addresses hit in the attacks; Kazakhstan, 325; Ukraine, 102; Vietnam, 93; Uzbekistan; 88; Belarus, 67; India, 66; Kyrgyzstan, 49; Mongolia, 42; and China, 39.
The campaign has been going for at least a year, and has infected some 1,465 computers in 61 countries with more than 300 targeted attacks.
Dark Reading quotes Jamz Yaneza, a research director at Trend Micro, as saying it’s probably a case of industrial espionage. But who by? ”This seems to be a notable attack in that respect: It doesn’t target Western countries or states. It seems to be the reverse this time,” Yaneza says.
Other tidbits from the Dark Reading report: Definitely not out of Russia, according to Yaneza. David Perry, global director of education at Trend Micro, says could be out of China or U.S., but no evidence of either. So it could be either hacktivists or industrial espionage. Yaneza says attackers stole Word files and spreadsheets, not financial information. “A lot of the targets seemed to be government-based,” he says.
My tuppennies’ worth? Seems unlikely to be hactivists, at least the type we think of. This was a concerted campaign, specifically aimed to get certain documents. Much more likely to be either industrial espionage or pure espionage. Which means we might have reached the stage where groups of hackers are conducting these attacks because a market exists for the product retrieved. Or had we already gotten there, and just not known it?
Either way, Russia and its former allies are now in the crosshairs.
More reading:
Massive malware attacks uncovered in former USSR | thinq_
Cyberspy attacks targeting Russians traced back to UK and US • The Register