In the last couple of months, Check Point Research (CPR) has been tracking the activity of a Chinese threat actor targeting Foreign Affairs ministries and embassies in Europe. Combined with other Chinese activity previously reported by Check Point Research, this represents a larger trend within the Chinese ecosystem, pointing to a shift to targeting European entities, with a focus on their foreign policy.
The activity described in this report, utilizes HTML Smuggling to target governmental entities in Eastern Europe. This specific campaign has been active since at least December 2022, and is likely a direct continuation of a previously reported campaign attributed to RedDelta (and also to Mustang Panda, to some extent).
Avast discovered a distribution point where a malware toolset is hosted, but also serves as temporary storage for the gigabytes of data being exfiltrated on a daily basis, including documents, recordings, and webmail dumps including scans of passports from Asian, American and European citizens and diplomats applying for Burmese visas, from Burmese human rights activists and Burmese government institutions.
APT group Mustang Panda now appears to have Europe and Asia Pacific targets in its sights. The BlackBerry Research and Intelligence team recently unearthed evidence that the group may be using global interest in the Russian-Ukraine war to deliver PlugX malware via phishing lure to unsuspecting users.
Online security is extremely important for people in Ukraine and the surrounding region right now. Government agencies, independent newspapers and public service providers need it to function and individuals need to communicate safely. Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been working around the clock, focusing on the safety and security of our users and the platforms that help them access and share important information.
