Spearfishing: Trolling for fun and malware with PRISM, David Petraeus and Jill Kelley!!!! [View all]

[MADem]

Chinese Cyberspies Use PRISM (and Petraeus) As Bait

Cyberspies have wasted no time exploiting the release of secret document about the National Security Agency's digital surveillance methods. Just this week, a new spearphishing campaign that tries to lure its victims by sending a malware-laden email that claims to have information on PRISM, the NSA's famous program that collects information on people's Internet activities.

The best part about this email? It's designed to look like it's from Jill Kelley, the woman who played a role in revealing David Petraeus' affair with Paula Broadwell.

The email itself contains a malicious Microsoft Word document, titled Monitored List 1.doc that attempts to infect victims' machines with malware that matches that used by the Chinese hacker crew known as Red Star APT, according to Brandon Dixon, who first discovered the attack.

(Red Star APT is the team that cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab revealed as being behind the NetTraveler attacks that we wrote about earlier this month.)

Red Star is believed by Kaspersky to be a state-backed hacking team similar to Unit 61398 of the PLA, better known as APT1, the alleged Chinese-government hacker crew whose exploits were revealed by cybersecurity firm Mandiant in February. APT1 was found by Mandiant to be stealing "hundreds of terabytes of data" ......

Much more at link. Interesting. Check your inbox!

http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/19/chinese_cyberspies_use_prism_and_petraeus_as_bait