Subj : Microsoft lifts the lid on a dangerous new hacking group that cou
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri Oct 27 2023 14:30:06

Microsoft lifts the lid on a dangerous new hacking group that could pose a 
major threat to your online accounts

Date:
Fri, 27 Oct 2023 13:09:33 +0000

Description:
Octo Tempest will go to any lengths to breach a system and steal money and 
data.

FULL STORY
======================================================================

Microsoft has just released an in-depth analysis of a relatively unknown, but 
highly dangerous, new threat actor. 

In its writeup , Microsoft dubbed the group Octo Tempest, and claims it to be 
a native English, financially motivated, threat actor, with extensive 
knowledge, plenty of experience, and zero scrupules. 

Octo Tempest was first formed in early 2022 and at the time it was oriented 
mostly towards selling SIM swaps and stealing accounts belonging to people 
rich in cryptocurrencies. A few months later, the group expanded its 
operations and started phishing, social engineering , as well as resetting 
huge amounts of passwords of hacked service providers. The goal of these 
campaigns was to steal as much sensitive data as possible. BlackCat 
affiliates 

Further still, the company became an affiliate of BlackCat (AKA ALPHV), a 
notorious ransomware-as-a-service provider, and started deploying encryptors 
on their victims endpoints, too. This was particularly surprising to 
Microsoft given that BlackCat isnt known for teaming up with native 
English-speaking criminals. 

Octo Tempests targets are usually organizations in the gaming, hospitality, 
retail, manufacturing, technology, and financial industries. Sometimes they 
will also go for managed service providers (MSPs). 

The group will stop at nothing to gain initial access into their targets 
network, going as far as to threaten the victims with physical violence. A 
couple of chat log screenshots have shown the attacker threatening to send a 
shooter to the victims house to shoot their wife. 

After gaining initial access, Octo Tempest will look to expand its reach as 
much as possible, but at the same time, try to keep a low profile and not 
raise any alarms. To that end, they were observed suppressing alerts of 
changes and modifying the mailbox rules. 

The end goal of the group is to steal cryptocurrencies, sensitive data, or 
extort the victim's money through ransomware. The full report can be found 
here . More from TechRadar Pro Microsoft has found a new version of the 
BlackCat ransomware Here's a list of the best firewalls today These are the 
best endpoint protection tools around



======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/microsoft-lifts-the-lid-on-a-dangerous-
new-hacking-group-that-could-pose-a-major-threat-to-your-online-accounts


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