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Iranian Hacker Group Created Fake News Organization For Social Engineering

Posted by timothy on from the won't-you-be-my-neighbor dept.

itwbennett (1594911) writes "A suspected Iranian hacker group seeded Facebook and LinkedIn with bogus profiles of attractive women and even created a fake online news organization to get digitally closer to more than 2,000 U.S. military members, defense contractors and lobbyists it wanted to spy on, according to a report by security consultancy iSight Partners. The group is suspected to be in Iran, based on their working patterns and the location of their command-and-control infrastructure, said Patrick McBride, vice president of iSight's marketing and communications. Their activity is consistent with government-sponsored espionage campaigns, but 'we don't have anything specific tying them back to the government,' he added." Adds reader wiredmikey (1824622): "The recently uncovered activity, which iSIGHT Partners calls NEWSCASTER, was a 'brazen, complex multi-year cyber-espionage that used a low-tech approach to avoid traditional security defenses–exploiting social media and people who are often the 'weakest link' in the security chain.' ... Working undetected since 2011, targets included senior U.S. military and diplomatic personnel, congressional personnel, Washington D.C. area journalists, U.S. think tanks, and defense contractors in the U.S. and Israel."

11 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. News Organizations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I thought all news organizations were created for social engineering purposes.

    1. Re:News Organizations by s.petry · · Score: 2

      Not created for that purpose, but surely get taken over and used for that purpose. Most people creating "News" sites do so for altruistic reasons (not all obviously). But like all other forms of power, get vacuumed up because certain people want it all.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    2. Re:News Organizations by ThatsDrDangerToYou · · Score: 2

      What, you thought MSNBC was level, objective, and centered? They're every bit as much a mouthpiece for the left as Fox is for the right. The rest of the media leans left as well. There is no objective journalism anymore, it's all out propaganda war. Oh, and you forgot to spell it "faux".

      With the idealogical drift in the US, MSNBC is considered "left", but in worldwide terms I think "center-left" would be more accurate. For the actual left, try Democracy Now. .. but we'll accept "MSNBC is a mouthpiece for the Dems" as a correct answer. Thanks fer playin!

    3. Re:News Organizations by timeOday · · Score: 2
      The phrase "social engineering" strikes me as off-key too. Evidently we have so completely bought into the idea that intelligence is fundamentally a technical activity rather than a social one, that we now consider using social means just a trick to accomplish what is fundamentally a technical goal. Which is to say, we are bass-ackwards.

      Getting close to important people to learn what they're thinking isn't some clever new thing, it is fundamental intelligence work. Maybe we should get back into that instead of technical dragnets covering everybody.

  2. wot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wait, are you trying to tell me there are social news groups out there telling... truth? You gotta be lying!

  3. Thank goodness by rockabilly · · Score: 2

    Thank goodness the NSA was on top of this and notified everyone of the threat. Tanks NSA...

  4. Propaganda again? by Jmc23 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    No proof Iran had anything to do with it, but hey, it fortifies our Israel propaganda.

    This looks more like a scare tactic by the companies that make a living off of detecting these 'cyber' attacks.

    And to top it all off, there's nothing new here, it's just basic social engineering. I would actually suspect this coming more from cultures that are used to social engineering.

    --
    Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
  5. American government does this all the time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But apparently it's only news when our competitors do it.

  6. Re:Weakest links? by oodaloop · · Score: 3, Informative

    Defense contractor here, and we get tons of training on how to avoid phishing and other cyber threats, espionage, sabotage, active shooter, equal opportunity, sexual harasment, emergency occupant, ad nauseum. For many people, it's in one ear and out the other.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  7. Was it Fox news? by T.E.D. · · Score: 5, Funny

    bogus profiles of attractive women and even created a fake online news organization to get digitally closer to more than 2,000 U.S. military members, defense contractors and lobbyists it wanted to spy on,

    Wait! So the Iranians actually created Fox News as a way to mess with the minds of American right wingers, and undermine the country?

    Why, that's just...well...actually it explains a lot.

  8. I knew it was fishy... by GPLDAN · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..when the "hot chicks" were Nancy Pelosi and Rosie O'Donnell.