Iran General NewsIranian Hackers Catfish a Cybersecurity Employee

Iranian Hackers Catfish a Cybersecurity Employee

-

Iran Focus

London, 6 Oct – A team of Iranian hackers used Facebook to target Deloitte, one of the world’s biggest accounting firms, according to Forbes.

One Deloitte employee fell victim to the scam in late 2016 at roughly the same time as a separate hack which affected Deloitte data in Microsoft’s Azure cloud-hosting service.

The hacking group known as OilRig, which as Forbes pointed out in July were believed to have been working for the Iranian Regime, created a fake Facebook profile for a beautiful, charming woman using the name Mia Ash.

In July 2016, the creators of the fictitious Mia began getting a Deloitte cybersecurity employee and engaging him in conversations about his job via the website’s chat function.

As their relationship grew, the unnamed employee offered to help set Mis up with a website for her alleged business and then eventually, she convinced him to open a document containing malware on his work computer.

Though this malware did not infect the wider company network, it shows how easily the hackers were able to manipulate a security worker, who helped clients to defend themselves against similar digital attacks, and how they could do it again.

James Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat and cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “This kind of thing is effective because men can’t help themselves apparently.”

Lewis continued by saying that we should ask why the employee was targeted and whether it was because of his job role or the company, although either option is worrying.

Lewis said: “In a couple instances the Iranians have been really clever: they don’t go after the primary target, they go after the secondary… the Deloitte guy might have been interesting only because of who he was connected to.”

Although OilRig doesn’t do a lot of hacking outside the Middle East, this latest breach is very worrying.

Lewis said: “It’s been a steady upward path for [the Regime], starting a decade ago. They test on their citizens, they practise every week against Israel. They’ve relationships with the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans, and in at least two of those – Russia and North Korea – we know they’ve exchanged tactics tools and procedures for cyber.”

Mia’s profile was creates using images and information stoled from a real-life photographer, Cristina Mattei, from Romania. The hackers also created multiple social media profiles for her so that a Google search wouldn’t show up anything suspicious.

Indeed, SecureWorks cybersecurity researcher Allison Wikoff said that this was one of the most developed fake personas she’d ever seen.

Mia was also used to befriend an Asia-based cybersecurity professional at Deloitte until February 2017, when she also sent him a file- supposedly of photos of her- to open on his work laptop. Thankfully, this was caught by a malware detector.

Latest news

Iran’s Housing Crisis from Another Perspective

According to statistics released by the Central Bank of Iran, housing prices in the capital Tehran have increased by...

Iran: Inefficient Management Resulting in Environmental and Historical Disasters

On June 7, Hossein Akbari, Deputy of Natural Environment and Biodiversity at the Department of Environmental Protection Agency of...

Iranian regime threatens Middle East with “hypersonic” missiles

The Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday unveiled a hypersonic missile. Hypersonic is a type of...

The Iranian regime lacks nuclear transparency

Iran has not acted as expected in terms of transparency regarding its nuclear program, said the head of the...

Iran has sold $1 million in ammo to Russia

The Iranian regime has sold ammunition to Russia worth more than one million dollars in the ongoing conflict in...

Forecasting a “difficult year” for Iran

The official website of the Iranian regime’s presidency was taken over by Iranian dissidents in a significant security breach...

Must read

US denies Iran rift, war plans

AFP: The White House denied Wednesday that a rift...

N.Korea crisis could spur action on Iran, say analysts

AFP: With North Korea issuing apocalyptic threats of nuclear...

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you