PRESS RELEASE

July 7, 2016 – San Francisco/Tel Aviv– The research team at Cymmetria, which develops a cyber deception solution for hunting attackers in organizational networks, today released findings revealing a new advanced persistent threat (APT) dubbed “Patchwork.”

Cymmetria investigated the targeted threat by use of MazeRunner, it’s cyber deception solution.

According to Cymmetria’s intelligence, Patchwork has infected an estimated 2,500 victims since it was first observed in December 2015, but there are indications of activity as early as 2014. Patchwork is the first targeted threat captured using a commercial deception capability/product.

 “Deception technology enables us to capture threats quicker, and more importantly discover their later stage toolset and lateral movement activity, which are often missed as they are deployed only once an attacker already succeeded in an organization and wants to achieve a permanent foothold,” said Gadi Evron, CEO and founder of Cymmetria.

The threat actor targeted victims worldwide, including in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and APAC entities – many of which were governments and government related organizations. Cymmetria concludes targets were concentrated on personnel working on military and political assignments, specifically related to Southeast Asia and the South China Sea.

The report indicates the threat actor is possibly of Indian origin. Unlike China or other notable APT actors, India has remained a relatively quiet locale for cyber espionage activity.

An interesting aspect of this threat actor’s operations is the low technological capability they display, in direct contradiction to their impressive success. Patchwork received its name due to the threat actor drawing significantly on code from online forums, GitHub, and the Dark Web, to build their malware and attack toolset.

“The most interesting challenge was catching the second stage malware which the attacker only deploys once they feel they require persistence and their risk of capture is low,” said Dean Sysman, CTO and co-founder of Cymmetria. “This was an advanced MazeRunner deception campaign which needed to be carefully crafted.”

To view the full report and its findings please see here (starting 7 AM ET, July 7th): https://www.cymmetria.com/patchwork-targeted-attack/

For more information please visit: www.cymmetria.com

About Cymmetria:

Cymmetria is a startup offering a pioneering cyber deception solution, based on breadcrumbs and decoys that lead attackers away from valuable targets. With Cymmetria, organizations gain the ability to detect threats, shape attacker behavior, and mitigate attacks. Founded in 2014 by security experts Gadi Evron and Dean Sysman, Cymmetria is changing the asymmetry of cyber security, tilting the traditional security odds so that hackers are the ones left vulnerable.