Firm says Iranian hackers spy on US, others via Facebook, social media accounts

On Thursday, a cyber intelligence firm had said that Iranian hackers had spied on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries for three years by using social networking accounts and a fake news website.

Reuters said ISight Partners, who have discovered the operation, claimed that the targets of the online spying include a four-star US Navy admiral, US ambassadors and lawmakers, and personnel from Afghanistan, Britain, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria. ISight refused to reveal the names of the victims and clarified that it has yet to confirm what data has been stolen from the individuals by the hackers. On the other hand, the firm said that the goal of the campaign was to gain access to government and corporate networks, and obtain intelligence on diplomatic negotiations and weapons systems.

iSight Executive Vice President Tiffany Jones told the news agency, "If it's been going on for so long, clearly they have had success."

The news website, which has played a central role to the operations, is NewsOnAir.org, who has been using content from reputable media organizations like Reuters, Associated Press, BBC and others. The operation, which was dubbed by ISight as "Newscaster" initially created six personas supposedly working for the news site, and then added eight more who purportedly work for defense contractors and other organizations, iSight has said.

In order to build credibility, the hackers created social media accounts for all 14 personas and befriended the targets. After establishing contact, ISight said that they will sent news articles on the fake news site, then links to infect computers with malicious software or web portals that would ask the victims for network log-in credentials.

Facebook Inc spokesman Jay Nancarrow has confirmed the hacker group and told Reuters that it has remove the fake accounts and done steps to catch fake accounts. Twitter and Google refused or had not comment on the matter, while LinkedIn spokesman Doug Madey said the site was investigating the report. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, who has been alerted along with authorities overseas by ISight about the operation, has refused on the matter, according to a spokeswoman.

Tags

ISight Partners, Newscaster hacking scheme, NewsOnAir.org hacking operations, NewsOnAir.org

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