Russian Threat Group May Have Devised a 'Man-on-the-Side' Attack
Iron Liberty, a Russia-based cyber espionage group known for targeting energy, nuclear, and defense organizations worldwide, may have developed a dangerous new technique called a "man-on-the side" attack.
Secureworks warned about the new threat in a report this week describing a "man-on-the-side" (MOTS) attack to install malware. The security firm says MOTS differs from a typical man-in the-middle (MITM) attack.
"The difference between MITM and MOTS is straightforward," says Don Smith, senior director of the Counter Threat Unit at Secureworks. "With MITM, the attacker is present on infrastructure the traffic is traversing and can tamper with it," he says. "With MOTS, the attacker has sufficient access to observe and inject traffic which through timing/bandwidth is consumed by the victim before the legitimate reply arrives."
