NCSC exposes Iranian, Russian spear-phishing campaign targeting UK

guest · Jan 27, 2023

By Alex Scroxton - January 26, 2023

Hostile advanced persistent threat (APT) groups aligned with the national interests of Iran and Russia are targeting UK nationals including academics, activists, charity and NGO workers, defence and government officials, journalists, and politicians, with carefully crafted and highly targeted spear-phishing emails, according to new intelligence from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
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The distinct yet technically similar campaigns are attributed with relative confidence to Iran’s TA453, which also goes by Charming Kitten among other names, and Russia’s Seaborgium, which also goes by Cold River and was recently linked to an attack on former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove and a group of hard Brexit advocates, and an incident targeting US nuclear scientists.
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It is relatively small in scale and does not pose an immediate threat to the majority of the British public in the grand scheme of things, according to the NCSC’s operations director, Paul Chichester, who said it was more the sophistication of the attacks, rather than the volume, that was a worry.

“The UK is committed to exposing malicious cyber activity alongside our industry partners, and this advisory raises awareness of the persistent threat posed by spear-phishing attacks,” he said.

“These campaigns by threat actors based in Russia and Iran continue to ruthlessly pursue their targets in an attempt to steal online credentials and compromise potentially sensitive systems.
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NCSC: UK cyber experts warn of targeted phishing attacks from actors based in Russia and Iran

Advisory highlights techniques used by attackers in spear-phishing campaigns.

Advisory highlights ongoing threat from spear-phishing by Russia-based group SEABORGIUM and Iran-based group TA453

GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre highlights details of malicious campaigns against targets of interest across specified sectors

Organisations and individuals urged to stay vigilant to potential approaches and take action to secure online accounts

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NCSC exposes Iranian, Russian spear-phishing campaign targeting UK

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