Middle Eastern hackers are using this phishing technique to infect political targets with Trojan malware

A hacking group is conducting cyberespionage against targets in the Middle East by duping politicians, activists and staff at NGOs into clicking links to authentic-looking but fake versions of high-profile websites in the region, and then infecting them with malware.

The operation — dubbed ‘Moonlight’ by cybersecurity researchers, after the name the attackers chose for one of their command-and-control domains — has generated over two hundred samples of malware over the past two years and targets individuals via their private email accounts instead of their corporate ones, to increase the chances of a successful attack.

The attacks, which are themed around Middle Eastern political issues such as the war in Syria or the conflict in Palestine, have been unearthed by cybersecurity researchers at Vectra Networks, who say the tools and targets are reminiscent of the Gaza Hacker Team, a group of hacktivists said to be aligned with Hamas, the Palestinian militant Islamic group. The attacks are purely centred on Middle Eastern targets, with the text crafted in Arabic. For the full article click here 

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