Google Updates on Campaign Targeting Security Researchers

Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) today shared an update on a campaign that has been targeting security researchers on social media and is attributed to the North Korean government. 

The campaign, disclosed in January, targeted security researchers working on vulnerability research and development across different organizations. Attackers created several types of social media profiles to chat with researchers and share videos and blogs of claimed exploits. They ultimately tried to share infected files or trick the victims into clicking a malicious link. 

In an update published today, TAG reports the same attackers behind this campaign created a new website with their associated social media profiles for a fake company called "SecuriElite." The site claims to represent a Turkey-based offensive security firm and has a link to its PGP key, which was used in the January attacks to try and get researchers to visit a malicious website. 

The newest social media profiles shared on the fake website are designed to appear as security researchers, another tactic seen in the January attacks. TAG also identified two LinkedIn accounts posing as recruiters for antivirus and security firms, and it has reported all social profiles to the respective platforms. The new site has not been seen serving malicious content.

"Following our January blog post, security researchers successfully identified these actors using an Internet Explorer 0-day," TAG said in today's update. "Based on their activity, we continue to believe that these actors are dangerous, and likely have more 0-days." 

Read the full post for more details.