U.S. Removes Domains Used in Recent USAID Cyberattacks

Share post:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has removed two internet domains used in recent phishing attacks under the pretext of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to spread malware and breach internal networks.

The two domains seized by the DOJ are theyardservice[.]com and worldhomeoutlet[.]com, websites used to receive data from victims of targeted phishing attacks and to send commands to execute the malware on infected computers.

Microsoft made these attacks public for the first time last week, stating that they were carried out by a Russian state-run hacking group called NOBELIUM, a group that is also believed to be affiliated with Russia’s SVR, a Russian intelligence agency.

NOBELIUM compromised a USAID contact account used for email campaigns and posed as USAID in phishing emails sent to about 3,000 email accounts in more than 150 organizations, including government agencies and human rights groups.

Recipients who received and clicked on these emails would be asked to download HTML attachments, which in turn would install four new malware created by the hackers.

This would then lead to the installation of remote access software such as Cobalt Strike beacons, which provide full access to the victims’ computers and networks.

Microsoft announced that there are a total of 34 domains that were used during the attacks, including two domains that were seized by the FBI.

For more information, read the original story in BleepingComputer.

Featured Tech Jobs

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Related articles

Canada, U.S. sign international guidelines for safe AI development

Eighteen countries, including Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., today agreed on recommended guidelines to developers in their nations for the secure design, development, deployment, and operation of artificial intelligent systems. It’s the latest in a series of voluntary guardrails that nations are urging their public and private sectors to follow for overseeing AI in

Cyber Security Today, Nov. 27, 2023 – Ransomware gang posts data stolen from a Canadian POS provider, and more

This episode reports on the latest ransomware attacks, and details of how a gang that scams people selling used products on

Cyber Security Today, Week in Review for the week ending November 24, 2023

This episode features discussion on Australia's decision to not make ransowmare payments illegal, huge hacks of third-party service suppliers in Canada and the U.S. and whether email and smartphone service providers are doing enough to protect

Cyber Security Today, Nov. 24, 2023 – A warning to tighten security on Kubernetes containers, and more

This episode reports on the increasing number of vulnerable Kubernetes containers online, the latest acknowledged data breaches, a browser scam aimed at Macs

Become a member

New, Relevant Tech Stories. Our article selection is done by industry professionals. Our writers summarize them to give you the key takeaways