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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the patch-your-software dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A cyberespionage group known for targeting diplomatic and government institutions has branched out into many other industries, including aviation, broadcasting, and finance, researchers warn.

Known as Patchwork, or Dropping Elephant, the group stands out not only through its use of simple scripts and ready-made attack tools, but also through its interest in Chinese foreign relations.

The group's activities were documented earlier this month by researchers from Kaspersky Lab, who noted in their analysis that China's foreign relations efforts appear to represent the main interest of the attackers.

In a new report [ecmascript required] Monday, researchers from Symantec said that the group's recent attacks have also targeted companies and organizations from a broad range of industries: aviation, broadcasting, energy, financial, non-governmental organizations (NGO), pharmaceutical, public sector, publishing and software.

While most of Patchwork's past victims were based in China and Asia, almost half of the recent targets observed by Symantec were based in the U.S.

The group uses a legitimate mailing list provider to send newsletter-like emails to its intended targets. The rogue emails link to websites set up by the attackers with content related to China. Depending on the industry they operate in, victims receive links to websites with content relevant for their business.

The rogue websites have links to .pps (PowerPoint) or .doc (Word) files hosted on other domains. If downloaded and opened, these files attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office in order to execute rogue code on users' computers.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:18PM (#381933)

    People trust Microsoft because Bill Gates is the world's richest man, and every person who isn't the world's richest secretly wants to be the world's richest person.

    You, poor nobody, will never convince people to use your Hacked Office: Terrorist Edition