High-profile individuals working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the UK, and the US have been targeted by an Iranian cyber espionage group called Mint Sandstorm since November 2023. The threat actor "used bespoke phishing lures in an attempt to socially engineer targets into downloading malicious files," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team reported in a recent analysis, describing it as a "technically and operationally ma
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In mid-May 2023, TA453 - also known publicly as Charming Kitten, APT42, Mint Sandstorm, Yellow Garuda - sent a benign conversation lure masquerading as a senior fellow with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) to the public media contact for a nuclear security expert at a US-based think tank focused on foreign affairs. The email solicited feedback on a project called “Iran in the Global Security Context” and requested permission to send a draft for review. The initial email also mentione
