Iran-Linked Hackers Target Israel With New Malware

A hacking group linked to Iran’s government has been targeting Israel with newly developed malware technology, it has been reported.

The group has developed new malware downloaders and recently deployed them against Israeli healthcare institutions, manufacturing firms and local government, according to cybersecurity news website Recorded Future News.

ESET, a Slovakia-based company, has linked the newly discovered downloaders to the Iranian hacking group OilRig, also known as APT34.

OilRig is using well-known cloud service providers as a veil for its activities when communicating with its command-and-control servers, according to ESET.

This strategy enables malicious downloaders to blend their activities more easily into the normal stream of network traffic, the researchers said.

Numerous reports have been made of the same group targeting Middle Eastern organizations since at least 2014 in countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Their main focus has been on government organizations and businesses within the financial, energy, chemical, and telecommunications industries.

Iranian-backed hackers have recently expanded their targets beyond the Middle East to target any trace of Israeli ties abroad.

An Iranian-linked hacker attacked a water facility in County Mayo in Ireland earlier this month, leaving residents without water for two days.

The pro-Iran cyber attack group targeted the facility because it used Unitronics Vision Series programmable logic controllers (PLCs), an Israeli product.