Researchers Report Details On Arabic-Speaking Cyberespionage Gang

Researchers from Trend Micro and Kaspersky Lab this week pulled the covers off research on a new Arabic-speaking cyber attack gang that has so far stolen more than 1 million files and is running ongoing malware campaigns on targets in more than 50 countries. Dubbed Operation Arid Viper, the campaign specifically detailed by Trend researchers in a report yesterday focuses on high-value Israeli targets, but this Desert Falcon group, as Kaspersky calls it, has gone after more than 3,000 victims in over 50 countries.

Dmitry Bestuzhev, head of Kaspersky Lab's global research analysis team for Latin America, told Dark Reading at Kaspersky's Security Analyst Summit that Desert Falcon is not a pure nation-state actor, but “more like a movement behind it.” This mirrors the complexity of the Middle East, he says, explaining that the targets included individuals at industrial, energy, religious, financial, and educational institutions, along with prominent activists and reporters.

“They are looking for confidential information,” he says, explaining that the group uses manual hacking techniques and spies on physical sites to find people associated with physical security at facilities. "They want to make sure they are stealing only secrets, not trash, and they don’t want to be discovered.”