New Group of Iranian Hackers Linked to Destructive Malware

By Andy Greenberg

WIRED

For more than five years, Iran has maintained a reputation as one of the most aggressive nations in the global arena of state-sponsored hacking, stealing data from corporate and government networks around the world, bombarding US banks with cyberattacks, and most brazen of all, unleashing multiple waves of computer-crippling malware that hit tens of thousands of PCs across the Middle East. But amidst that noisy mayhem, one Iranian group has managed to quietly penetrate a broad series of targets around the world, until now evading the public eye. And while that group seems to have stuck to traditional spying so far, it may also be laying the groundwork for the next round of destructive attacks.

Security firm FireEye has released new research into a group it calls Advanced Persistent Threat 33, attributing a prolific series of breaches of companies in the aerospace, defense, and petrochemical industries in countries as wide-ranging as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the US. While FireEye has closely tracked APT33 since May of last year, the security firm believes the group has been active since at least 2013, with firm evidence that it works on behalf of Iran's government. And though FireEye describes APT33's activities as largely focused on stealthy spying, they've also found links between it and a mysterious piece of data-destroying malware that security analysts have puzzled over since earlier this year.

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