Blizzard

Microsoft Secure

Defending against evolving identity attack techniques

Threat actors continue to develop and leverage various techniques that aim to compromise cloud identities. Despite advancements in protections like multifactor authentication (MFA) and passwordless solutions, social engineering remains a key aspect of phishing attacks. Implementing phishing-resistant solutions, like passkeys, can improve security against these evolving threats.
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Microsoft Secure

New Russia-affiliated actor Void Blizzard targets critical sectors for espionage

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has discovered a cluster of worldwide cloud abuse activity conducted by a threat actor we track as Void Blizzard, who we assess with high confidence is Russia-affiliated and has been active since at least April 2024. Void Blizzard’s cyberespionage operations tend to be highly targeted at specific organizations of interest to Russia, including in government, defense, transportation, media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and healthcare sectors primarily in Europe and North America.
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Microsoft Secure

The BadPilot campaign: Seashell Blizzard subgroup conducts multiyear global access operation

Microsoft is publishing for the first time our research into a subgroup within the Russian state actor Seashell Blizzard and its multiyear initial access operation, tracked by Microsoft Threat Intelligence as the “BadPilot campaign”. This subgroup has conducted globally diverse compromises of Internet-facing infrastructure to enable Seashell Blizzard to persist on high-value targets and support tailored network operations.
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Microsoft Secure

New Star Blizzard spear-phishing campaign targets WhatsApp accounts

In mid-November 2024, Microsoft Threat Intelligence observed the Russian threat actor we track as Star Blizzard sending their typical targets spear-phishing messages, this time offering the supposed opportunity to join a WhatsApp group. This is the first time we have identified a shift in Star Blizzard’s longstanding tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to leverage a […]
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Microsoft Secure

Frequent freeloader part II: Russian actor Secret Blizzard using tools of other groups to attack Ukraine

Since January 2024, Microsoft has observed Secret Blizzard using the tools or infrastructure of other threat groups to attack targets in Ukraine and download its custom backdoors Tavdig and KazuarV2.
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Microsoft Secure

Frequent freeloader part I: Secret Blizzard compromising Storm-0156 infrastructure for espionage

Microsoft has observed Secret Blizzard compromising the infrastructure and backdoors of the Pakistan-based threat actor we track as Storm-0156 for espionage against the Afghanistan government and Indian Army targets.
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Microsoft Secure

Analyzing Forest Blizzard’s custom post-compromise tool for exploiting CVE-2022-38028 to obtain credentials

Since 2019, Forest Blizzard has used a custom post-compromise tool to exploit a vulnerability in the Windows Print Spooler service that allows elevated permissions. Microsoft has issued a security update addressing this vulnerability as CVE-2022-38028.
The post Analyzing Forest Blizzard’s custom post-compromise tool for exploiting CVE-2022-38028 to obtain credentials appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog. READ MORE HERE…

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Microsoft Secure

Staying ahead of threat actors in the age of AI

Microsoft, in collaboration with OpenAI, is publishing research on emerging threats in the age of AI, focusing on identified activity associated with known threat actors Forest Blizzard, Emerald Sleet, Crimson Sandstorm, and others. The observed activity includes prompt-injections, attempted misuse of large language models (LLM), and fraud.
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Microsoft Secure

Star Blizzard increases sophistication and evasion in ongoing attacks

Microsoft Threat Intelligence continues to track and disrupt malicious activity attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor we track as Star Blizzard, who has improved their detection evasion capabilities since 2022 while remaining focused on email credential theft against targets.
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Microsoft Secure

Microsoft shares threat intelligence at CYBERWARCON 2023

At the CYBERWARCON 2023 conference, Microsoft and LinkedIn analysts are presenting several sessions detailing analysis across multiple sets of threat actors and related activity, demonstrating Microsoft Threat Intelligence’s ongoing efforts to track threat actors, protect customers, and share information with the wider security community.
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