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Iranian Hackers Have Set Up a News Outlet to Court Possible Targets, Security Firm Says

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Dissent

CTech reports:

An Iranian cyber espionage group known as Charming Kitten is believed to be behind a campaign targeting academic researchers, human rights activists, media outlets and political advisors focusing on Iran, according to a report published earlier this week by Israel-based threat intelligence company ClearSky Cyber Security. The group has also set up a news outlet called The British News Agency to lure targets in.

[…]

The real purpose of the attack is to ferret out information about Iranian dissenters, said ClearSky CEO Boaz Dolev in an interview with Calcalist.

Aha… here’s the part I was wondering about:

ClearSky reports also point out a connection between Charming Kitten and Behzad Mesri, also known as “Skote Vahshat,” (sic) the Egyptian citizen indicted by the FBI for hacking into HBO and leaking episodes of several series, including Game of Thrones. According to the FBI, Mesri has been a member of an Iran-based hacking group called the Turk Black Hat security team at certain times.

Read more on CTech.

Related posts:

  • Iran’s ban on Telegram that was intended to facilitate domestic spying backfired
  • Iran vs U.S., The Cyber Front Explained
  • Iranian charged in HBO hack and extortion attempt
  • Nine Iranians Charged With Conducting Massive Cyber Theft Campaign on Behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Category: HackNon-U.S.

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