Threat Hunting Case Study: Uncovering Turla | Intel 471
Russia has long been a military power, a nuclear power, a space power and in recent decades, a cyber power. It has been one of the most capable cyber actors, going back to the late 1990s when Russian state hackers stole classified documents and military research from U.S. universities and government agencies. The stolen documents, if stacked on top of one another, would have been taller than the Washington Monument (555 feet or 169 meters). These incidents, dubbed “Moonlight Maze” as described in Thomas Rid’s book “Rise of the Machines,” marked one of the world’s first advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks. Russia’s intelligence and security agencies continue to operate highly skilled groups of offensive attackers. Those APT groups are spread across its intelligence and security agencies and the Ministry of Defense. They engage in a broad range of cyber and influence operations tied to Russia’s strategic objectives. These include exploiting adversary systems, establishing footholds, conducting cyber espionage operations and running disinformation and misinformation campaigns designed to undermine Western narratives. One of the most effective and long-running Russian groups is Turla, a unit known as Center 16 housed within Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. Researchers found that this group, which is active today, may have been connected with Moonlight Maze.