The Ever-Evolving Threat of the Russian-Speaking Cybercriminal Underground | Trend Micro (US)
We dive into one of the most sophisticated and impactful ecosystems within the global cybercrime landscape. Our research looks at tools and techniques, specialized forums, popular services, plus a deeply ingrained culture of secrecy and collaboration.
The Russian hacking group known as Gamaredon, or “Shuckworm,” has been making headlines with its sophisticated cyberattacks targeting Western military missions. This group has evolved its tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to enhance stealth and effectiveness, transitioning from Visual Basic Script (VBS) to PowerShell-based tools. PowerShell is a task automation framework from Microsoft, often used by attackers to execute commands and scripts on Windows systems. This shift, as reported by Symantec, highlights their strategic move to obfuscate, or hide, payloads and leverage legitimate services for evasion. Gamaredon’s recent campaigns have notably involved the use of malicious removable drives, targeting Western military missions in Ukraine with .LNK files that initiate infections upon execution. These developments underscore the group’s persistent threat to geopolitical entities, particularly those related to the Ukrainian military.
Russia arrests CEO of tech company linked to Doppelgänger disinformation campaign
Two other employees at the St. Petersburg-based hosting provider Azea Group were arrested. The company has alleged links to state-sponsored disinformation campaigns and cybercriminal infrastructure.
Doppelgänger: New disinformation campaigns spreading on social media through Russian networks
This report presents: The intrusion set commonly known as Doppelgänger continues to spread disinformation narratives on social medias such as X, through bot accounts specifically made for such campaigns. As for its previous campaigns, Doppelgänger pushes its anti-western narrative on pages spoofing the medias of the targeted countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, and Israel. The disinformation campaign aims to manipulate public opinion by exploiting sensitive issues and exacerbating social and geopolitical divisions. The linguistic characteristics of the articles suggest that some of them were translated from Russian or edited by Russian natives, reinforcing the hypothesis that they are of Russian origin. In order to bypass both manual and automatic moderation on social media platforms, Doppelgänger continues to leverage Kehr[.]io, a redirection provider advertised on Russian speaking underground forums. This service hosts its infrastructure on IPs announced by English companies managed by Ukrainian and Belarusian individuals that we could connect with a high level of confidence to bulletproof network hosting solutions. * The disinformation campaigns remain ongoing.
Exclusive: Hegseth orders Cyber Command to stand down on Russia planning
The secretary of Defense has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, sources tell Recorded Future News.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center discovered an active and successful device code phishing campaign by a threat actor we track as Storm-2372. Our ongoing investigation indicates that this campaign has been active since August 2024 with the actor creating lures that resemble messaging app experiences including WhatsApp, Signal, and Microsoft Teams. Storm-2372’s targets during this time have included government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), information technology (IT) services and technology, defense, telecommunications, health, higher education, and energy/oil and gas in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East. Microsoft assesses with medium confidence that Storm-2372 aligns with Russian interests, victimology, and tradecraft.
Starting in mid-January 2025, Volexity identified several social-engineering and spear-phishing campaigns by Russian threat actors aimed at compromising Microsoft 365 (M365) accounts. These attack campaigns were highly targeted and carried out in a variety of ways. The majority of these attacks originated via spear-phishing emails with different themes. In one case, the eventual breach began with highly tailored outreach via Signal.Through its investigations, Volexity discovered that Russian threat actors were impersonating a variety of individuals
Sweden launches sabotage probe after another data cable damaged in Baltic Sea Europe
Another undersea data cable, this time connecting Sweden and Latvia, has been severed in the Baltic Sea, officials from both countries said Sunday. The incident prompted Sweden to launch a criminal probe into the matter and seize a "suspect vessel" vessel headed for Russia.
How A Large-Scale Russian Botnet Operation Stays Under the Radar
Russian threat actors combine domain name vulnerabilities with hidden router proxy techniques to scale their attacks while remaining shielded from detection.
The Eagle S is suspected of damaging the Estlink-2 power cable which runs under the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia by dragging its anchor along the seabed on Christmas Day. Police in Finland say the crew of a Russia-linked tanker suspected of damaging a power cable under the Baltic Sea have been detained indefinitely. The Eagle S crew consists of 24 people with Finland’s Central Criminal Police imposing movement restrictions on eight.
