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Fnord666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Back in the 90s, in 1996, when the Internet was barely a few years old, two cyber-espionage groups dominated the cyber-space: Moonlight Maze and the Equation Group.

Their operations shocked the world and made people realize that hackers are also capable of stealing state secrets, not just money from bank accounts. That's when the term cyber-warfare became reality and not just the plot B-rated Hollywood movies.

While details collected about the Equation Group across the years have allowed researchers to issue theories on its connections with the US National Security Agency, very few details were collected about Moonlight Maze, the first ever APT.

The group was active in the late 90s and seemed to have disappeared at the turn of the century. Their attacks were studied and studied again and their mode of operation became standard practice for malware and cyber-attackers.

The group and its attacks achieved mythical status in the cyber-security world and were the subject of many books.

Through the years, Moonlight Maze hacked many important US targets such as government agencies and top universities. Victims included the Pentagon, NASA, the US Navy, and the Department of Energy, just to name the bigger ones.

Source: BleepingComputer [bleepingcomputer.com]

Original Submission