Global hacking campaign targets nuclear, defense, energy and financial firms - SiliconANGLE

A new report from cybersecurity firm McAfee LLC today detailed a new global campaign that has targeted nuclear, defense, energy and financial companies across the globe.

Dubbed “Operation Sharpshooter,” the campaign has infiltrated dozens of companies, mostly in the U.S. and other English-speaking nations, with malicious software that extracts information from targeted systems.

The attack used a phishing campaign in which hackers pretended to be a recruiting firm sending what appeared to be legitimate emails to specific targets.

When those targets clicked on a malicious attachment, in this case a fake Microsoft Word document, the infiltration began by installing a second program called “Rising Sun.” That program is described as an implant that uses source code from the Lazarus Group’s 2015 backdoor Trojan Duuzer in a new framework to infiltrate the targeted network.

The Lazarus Group has been previously linked to North Korea, but the McAfee researchers do not point a finger in that direction.