research worker atCitizen Labhave unearth a tolerant run aim at infiltrate Formosan speech news sites after discovering a phishing campaign place journalists at the US - based China Digital Times .
Digital espionage operations targeting news organizations have become commonplace with numerous attacks traced to China - based wheeler dealer . In 2013 , for example , The New York Timesreported relentless usurpation attempts by Chinese hackers over a four - month period place staff member ’ electronic mail business relationship . alike , The Washington Postreported that hackers gained entree to Post employees ’ user name calling and passwords . The hackers appear to have been tasked with uncovering the efforts of newsman cover account in China .
Citizen Lab was called to test an intrusion attempt at the California - based China Digital Times after a reporter there meet a suspicious electronic mail from an unmistakable source offering “ insider information . ” The electronic mail contained a linkup to what appeared to be a China Digital Times clause , which diverted the reporter to a fake WordPress login screen . investigator later prove the server used to host the false login page and discovered several other fake domain registered to the same entity .
In fact , the hackers were attempting to mimic a batch of publication reporting on China , including The Epoch Times , Bowen Press , and Mingjing News . In some event , the content of an total land site was copied to fill in the illusion . Inevitably , reporters deliver with links to the fake website were prompted to supply logins to the capacity direction organization ; if the ruse worked , the hack would acquire certification to the actual news internet site and , potentially , access to draft or other material related to forthcoming storey .
“ Our analytic thinking shows that the hustler are using the fake domain for at least three unlike purpose : reconnaissance , phishing , and malware , ” Citizen Lab report .
Two server were found to be associated with the hackers ’ efforts . One was used for reconnaissance mission — to measure what sorts of upcoming story might be publish — as well as to plunge phishing attempts , as described above . A second server was dedicated solely to serve malware performance .
Citizen Lab identified malware contained on the second server as NetWire , a remote access trojan ( RAT ) which has been around since at least 2012 and has been honour previously collectingstored credit card informationin point - of - cut-rate sale breach . The lading was disguise as an “ Adobe update ” and contain software designed to obfuscate its author computer code . Netwire RAT has a wide range of capability . It can read usernames and passwords store by web browsers , log keystrokes , charm screenshots and audio , and even upload and download file cabinet without the user ’ cognition .
The domain information tied to the fake version of China Digital Times has also been join to retiring campaigns targeting Tibetan Radio Station and the Thai Government , though this does not mean definitively that the attempt were carried out by the same actors . seemingly , this could be a cause of separate histrion using divided up resources . “ We surmise that at the least there is some grade of communion and reuse of base by the same operator or group of hustler , ” the researchers say .
Journalists are particularly vulnerable to the phishing attack delineate above because as part of their workplace reporters on a regular basis receive information from unknown sources , which they may have to vet on the fly front . “ Ideally , information security should be part of their received oeuvre process , but entropy security is but one consideration out of many competing priorities , ” Citizen Lab write .
Read Citizen Lab ’s full report .
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