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Top 20+ Advanced Persistent Threat Teams

An advanced persistent threat (APT) is an attack or state-sponsored group that occurs when an unauthorized user utilizes advanced and sophisticated techniques to gain access to a system or network. Phishing, ransomware, malware, and data breaches are common techniques used by APTs to attack their targets. Below is a list of the top 20+ advanced persistent threat actors:

 

Lazarus Group

  • AKA: APT38, Gods Apostles, Gods Disciples, Guardians of Peace, ZINC, Whois Team, Hidden Cobra
  • Targets: Bitcoin exchanges, Cryptocurrency, and Sony Corp; South Korea, United States, Australia, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan Russia, Mexico
  • Techniques/Tools: Bankshot, DDoS, EternalBlue, Mimikatz, Bankshot, Http Troy, PowerShell RAT
  • Significant Attack: 2014 Sony Pictures Hack, Operation Troy, WannaCry Software, Covid-19 Spear Phishing, New Mac variant of Lazarus Dacis RAT distributed
  • Location: North Korea

 

UNC2452

  • AKA: Dark Halo, Nobelium, SilverFish, StellarParticle
  • Targets: SolarWinds, Pentagon, United Kingdom Government, European Parliament
  • Techniques/Tools: Supply chain attack
  • Significant Attack: SolarWinds Orion software attack
  • Location: Unknown

 

Equation Group

  • AKA: Tilded Team
  • Targets: Afghanistan, Iran, India, Mali, Pakistan, Syria
  • Techniques/Tools: DoublePulsar, EQUATIONDRUG, FANNY, Lambert, Regin, GRAYFISH, Duqu, Flame
  • Significant Attack: iOS exploit 2020
  • Location: United States

 

Wizard Spider

  • AKA: Grim Spider, Gold Blackburn
  • Targets: Defense, financial, government, and telecommunications sectors; worldwide
  • Techniques/Tools: AdFind, Anchor, BazarBackdoor, BloodHound, Cobalt Strike, Dyre, Gophe, Invoke SMBAutoBrute, LaZagne, PowerSploit, PowerTrick, Ryuk, SessionGopher, TrickBot, TrickMo, Upatre
  • Significant Attack: Trickbot campaigns in Italy targeting COVID-19
  • Location: Russia

 

Carbanak

  • AKA: Anunak, Carbon Spider
  • Targets: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan
  • Techniques/Tools: Antak, Ave Maria, BABYMETAL, Backdoor Batel, Bateleur, BELLHOP, Boostwrite, Cain & Abel, Carbanak, Cobalt Strike, DNSMessenger, DNSRat, DRIFTPIN, FlawedAmmyy, Griffon, HALFBAKED, Harpy, JS Flash, KLRD, Mimikatz, MBR Eraser, Odinaff, POWERPIPE, POWERSOURCE, PsExec, SocksBot, SoftPerfect Network Scanner, SQLRAT, TeamViewer, TinyMet
  • Significant Attack: Bank and financial institutions were targeted with one victim losing $7.3 million and another losing $10 million
  • Location: Ukraine

 

Sandworm Team

  • AKA: Telebots, Electrum, Voodoo Bear, Iron Viking
  • Targets: Industrial control systems and SCADA; Georgia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan
  • Techniques/Tools: BlackEnergy, Gcat, PassKillDisk, PsList
  • Significant Attack: Widespread power outage in Ukraine, Russian military hack, cyber espionage attacks against NATO
  • Location: Russia

 

Evil Corp

  • AKA: Indirk Spider
  • Targets: Financial, government, and healthcare sectors
  • Techniques/Tools: BitPaymer, Cobalt Strike, Cridex, Dridex, EmpireProject, FriedEx, Mimikatz, PowerSploit, PsExec, WastedLocker
  • Significant Attack: BitPaymer ransomware paralyzed the IT systems of an Alaskan town, Arizona Beverages knocked offline by ransomware attack, Apple Zero-Day exploited in new BitPaymer campaign, Treasury sanctions Evil Corp, the Russia-based cybercriminal group behind Dridex malware
  • Location: Russia

 

Fancy Bear

  • AKA: APT28, Sofacy, Sednit
  • Targets: Democratic National Committee and Democratic National Convention; Germany, United States, Ukraine
  • Techniques/Tools: Cannon, Coreshell, Responder, MimiKatz, spear-phishing
  • Significant Attack: U.S. Department of Justice indictment 
  • Location: Russia

 

LuckyMouse

  • AKA: Emissary Panda, Iron Tiger, APT27
  • Targets: Aerospace, education, and government sectors; Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Middle East, Philippines, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet, Turkey, UK, and USA
  • Techniques/Tools: Antak, ASPXSpy, China Chopper, Gh0st RAT, gsecdump, HTTPBrowser, Htran, Hunter, HyperBro, Mimikatz, Nishang, OwaAuth, PlugX, ProcDump, PsExec, TwoFace, SysUpdate, Windows Credentials Editor, ZXShell, Living off the Land
  • Significant Attack: Operation Iron Tiger
  • Location: China

 

Sodinokibi

  • AKA: REvil, Sodin Targets: GandCrab, Oracle, Golden Gardens
  • Techniques/Tools: REvil ransomware, privilege escalation, PowerShell, Sodinokibi ransomware
  • Significant Attack: Breached managed service providers, impacting hundreds of dental offices
  • Location: Unknown

 

Mirage

  • Targets: European Union, India, United Kingdom
  • Techniques/Tools: Cobalt Strike, Mimikatz, MS Exchange Tool, phishing, Royal DNS
  • Significant Attack: Attack on a company that provides a range of services to UK government
  • Location: China

 

Magecart

  • Targets: British Airways, eCommerce, Magento, Newegg, Ticketmaster Entertainment
  • Techniques/Tools: Web-skimmers, skimmer scripts
  • Significant Attack: Ticketmaster breach

 

OilRig

  • AKA: APT 34, Crambus, Helix Kitten, Twisted Kitten, Chrysene
  • Targets: Aviation, chemical, education, and energy sectors; Iran, Israel, Middle Eastern government; Saudi Arabia, United States
  • Techniques/Tools: GoogleDrive RAT, HyperShell, ISMDoor, Mimikatz, PoisonFrog, SpyNote, Tasklist, Webmask
  • Significant Attack: Shamoon v3 attack against targets in Middle East Asia, Karkoff
  • Location: Iran

 

Comment Crew

  • AKA: APT 1, Byzantine Hades, Comment Panda, Shanghai Group
  • Targets: Aerospace, chemical, construction, education, energy, engineering, entertainment, financial, and IT sectors; Belgium, Canada, France, India, Insrael, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tawan, United Kingdom, United States
  • Techniques/Tools: GetMail, Mimikatz, Pass-The Hash toolkit, Poison Ivy, WebC2 significant attack: Operation “Oceansalt”
  • Location: China

 

Temper Panda

  • AKA: Admn@338, Magnesium, Team338
  • Targets: Financial, government, media sectors; Hong Kong, United States
  • Techniques/Tools: Bozok, LOWBALL, Poison Ivy, Systeminfo, Poison Ivy, Living off the Land
  • Location: China

 

Syrian Electronic Army

  • AKA: Deadeye Jackal, SEA, Syria Malware Team
  • Targets: Facebook, Forbes, Microsoft, Skype; Canada, France, United States, United Kingdom
  • Techniques/Tools: DDoS, malware, phishing, spamming, website defacement
  • Significant Attack: Defacement attacks against news websites such as BBC News, Associated Press, National Public Radio, CBC News, The Daily Telegraph, The Washington Post
  • Location: Syria

 

PLATINUM

  • AKA: TwoForOne
  • Targets: Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam
  • Techniques/Tools: AMTsol, Dipsind, hot-patching vulnerabilities, spear-phishing, Titanium, zero-day exploits
  • Significant Attack: Southeast Asia attack
  • Location: China

 

Calypso

  • Targets: Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia, Thailand, Turkey
  • Techniques/Tools: EternalBlue, EternalRomance, Mimikatz, PlugX, SysInternals
  • Significant Attack: Attacked governments in India, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Turkey
  • Location: China 

 

Numbered Panda

  • AKA: APT 12, Calc Team, Crimson Iron
  • Targets: Organizations in East Asia, media outlets, high-tech companies and governments, New York Times
  • Techniques/Tools: DynCalc, DNSCalc, HIGHTIDE, RapidStealer, spear-phishing
  • Significant Attack: New York Times breach, Taiwanese government
  • Location: China

 

Cozy Bear

  • AKA: APT 29, CloudLook, Grizzly Steppe, Minidionis, Yttrium
  • Targets: Norwegian Government, United States
  • Techniques/Tools: Cobalt Strike, CozyDuke, Mimikatz, spear-phishing
  • Significant Attacks: Attack on the Pentagon, phishing campaign in the USA
  • Location: Russia

 

Elfin

  • AKA: APT 33, Magnallium
  • Targets: Aerospace and energy sectors; Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United States
  • Techniques/Tools: Mimikatz, NETWIRE RC, PowerSploit, Shamoon
  • Significant Attacks: Organizations in Saudi Arabia and US
  • Location: Supported by government of Iran

 

Charming Kitten

  • AKA: Group 83, NewsBeef, Newscaster, APT 35
  • Targets: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, United Kingdom, U.S. government/defense sector websites
  • Techniques/Tools: DownPaper, FireMalv, MacDownloader
  • Significant Attack: HBO cyberattack
  • Location: Iran

 

Team TNT

  • Targets: Amazon, Kubernetes, Windows, Alpine, Docker
  • Techniques/Tools: Cryptojacking. Botnets, Cryptominers, TNTbotinger
  • Significant Attack: AWS Worm attack, Chimaera campaign
  • Location: Unknown

 

Mythic Leopard

  • AKA: APT 36, ProjectM, TEMP. Lapis, Transparent Tribe
  • Targets: India, Indian Army
  • Techniques/Tools: Andromeda, beendoor, Bozok, Breachrat, spear-phishing
  • Significant Attack: Spreading fake coronavirus health advisory
  • Location: Pakistan

 

Muddy Water

  • AKA: Static Kitten, Seedworm, TEMP .Zagros
  • Targets: Georgia, Iraq, Israel, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States
  • Techniques/Tools: ChromeCookiesView, chrome-passwords, CrackMapExec, Mimikatz, PowerSploit, POWERSTATS, spear-phishing
  • Location: Iran

 

OceanLotus

  • AKA: APT 32, Ocean Buffalo, SeaLotus
  • Targets: Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, USA, Vietnam
  • Techniques/Tools: Cobalt Strike, KerrDown, MimiKatz, PowerSploit, Terracotta VPN, 0-day exploits in MS Office
  • Significant Attack: Breach of Toyota in Australia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam; targeting Wuhan government and Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management in latest example of COVID-19 related espionage
  • Location: Vietnam

Written by: Edin Y Cardona - FSVM Coordinator/IS Specialist
SBS CyberSecurity, LLC
 


 

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  • {Article} 50+ Incident Response Preparedness Checklist Items: The #1 question organizations need to ask themselves is “if someone was in our network, would we be able to tell?” If you are uncertain how to go about detecting an incident on your network, you are certainly not alone. Here’s a primer to get you started.


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Posted: Friday, December 10, 2021
Categories: Blog