The main units of the Russian GRU engaged in cyberspace operations have been discussed in this blog: from our old posts (from 2018) about unit 26165 and 74455, to the recent rise of unit 29155. All these units have something in common, in addition to their cyberspace capabilities: they have been assigned an APT group […]
GRU military unit 29155
GRU’s military unit 29155 (161st Specialist Training Center) has been historically engaged in kinetic active measures such as subversion, assassinations or sabotage. Soviet or Russian active measures refer to covert operations aimed at influencing third countries’ politics or public opinion. They include from cyberspace activities to “wet stuff” (or “bloody stuff”, or simply “stuff that […]
RansomHub Ransomware – New Infection Chains Unveiled
From Lab52, we are very aware that in the fight against ransomware, we must not focus solely on the final artifact but must pay attention to every phase of deployment. Unfortunately, it will not always be possible to accurately identify the entire infection chain, as highlighted in the latest statistics by Coveware. The objective of […]
DLL Side Loading through IObit against Colombia
Early in May 2024, S2 Grupo’s intelligence unit, Lab52, detected a new phishing campaign in which attackers impersonated the Colombian Attorney General’s Office. The attack aims to infect victims’ systems with the generic malware artefact AsyncRAT. To do so, it deploys a series of malicious files, including the legitimate file of the free IObit anti-malware […]
Pelmeni Wrapper: New Wrapper of Kazuar (Turla Backdoor)
Turla is an APT group allegedly linked to the intelligence service FSB (Federal Security Service) from the Russian Federation. This threat actor is specifically in the Center 16 unit, which carries out the collection of radio-electronic intelligence on communications facilities. Moreover, the Center 16 is in charge of intercepting, decrypting and processing the electronic message […]
Ransomware’s Christmas Carol
Around mid-year, Lab52 published a report on ransomware that included both geopolitical and cyber intelligence content. The report includes the analysis of different sources of information and showcasing some of our cyberintelligence findings in this regard. However, the activity of this type of malware prompts Lab52 to closely track the various recorded cases. Therefore, taking […]