Politicians, journalists and government organisations are being warned of “spear-phishing campaigns” based in Iran and Russia, a report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) revealed.
“Campaigns by threat actors based in Russia and Iran continue to ruthlessly pursue their targets in an attempt to steal online credentials and compromise potentially sensitive systems,” said Paul Chichester, NCSC’s director of operations.
In 2022 Russian criminal group SEABORGIUM and Iranian TA453 conducted separate malicious campaigns targeting varying organisations and people via espionage attacks.
Cyber espionage involves criminals attempting to steal classified or sensitive data in the hope of gaining a competitive advantage over a business, organisation or a government.
One common practise used by hackers is phishing, in which hackers will trick victims using a disguised message in order to obtain access to a target's accounts or to plant surveillance malware on their machines.
Spear-phishing refers to personalised attacks, often through email, that attempt to infiltrate organisations by appearing as legitimate senders.
Matt Hull, global head of threat intelligence at NCC Group, told Proactive: “It requires a cultural shift to be able to spot phishing emails as it is getting harder with attacks becoming more complex and sophisticated.
“Organisations have to do the basics well to protect themselves: strong password management, good patching to keep on top of vulnerabilities and cultural changes so these attacks can be spotted on an employee level.”
Hull claimed there is an issue of “cyber fatigue” within organisations, as employees feel as if these threats do not concern them.
Hackers can often obtain control of a business or institution through accessing a single employee's account.
“The UK is committed to exposing malicious cyber activity alongside our industry partners,” Chichester added, hoping the report “raises awareness of the persistent threat posed by spear-phishing attacks.”
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