We live in a world full of flipsides. No matter what it’s about, there always seems to be a catch. Eating a lot of delicious food? It’s probably going to make you fat. Spending extended hours playing video games? It might result in an eye strain. A thing can be greatly beneficial on the surface, but within the depths, it’s far more likely to carry a negative than it is not. We can spot examples of this all around us, and the one that instantly catches attention is technology. Technology is pretty much spearheading whatever this generation chooses to do. From recreational activities to crucial moves of national significance, it’s catering every need and requirement across the spectrum. Such has been its ease and excellence that the people have actively made themselves dependent on technology to complete the most basic of tasks. Now, that doesn’t seem like a terrible thing to do from the outside. After all, technology is going nowhere. Instead, it’s only getting better, so why not take all the work from it? Well, that’s when the flipside enters the picture.
Our collective reliance on technology has created a wider surface of target for threat actors, therefore making it relatively easier for them to cause damage at a huge scale. The U.S. cybersecurity crisis stands as the biggest example of it. The ruthlessness of these hackers sent waves of panic throughout the country. It’s often believed that hackers are devastatingly direct and quick in their approach, but it’s barely true. If needed, hackers can bide their time and pull the trigger at the perfect moment. A recent case of a year-long espionage campaign against Oil & Gas companies testifies for it better than anything else.
In a thought-out attempt to steal information, this campaign, over the last year, has been targeting energy companies across the world, dropping remote access trojans (RATs) to perform cyber-espionage. As per the reports, spear-phishing emails packaged with malicious attachments were being pushed into different systems. Intezer’s analysis shows that RATs such as Agent Tesla, AZORult, Formbook, Loki etc were the ones driving these attacks and stealing critical information like banking details, browser data, and logging keyboard strokes.
“The attack also targets oil and gas suppliers, possibly indicating that this is only the first stage in a wider campaign,” research team stated.