The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says Iranian hacking group, known as Lyceum, Hexane, Siamesekitten, or Spirlin, is infiltrating the network of telecoms companies and internet service providers (ISPs) in Nigeria.
NCC’s spokesperson, who disclosed this in a statement on Monday said the group also targets Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Africa with “upgraded malware in a recent politically motivated attacks oriented in cyberespionage.”
“Information about this cyber attack is contained in the latest advisory issued by the Nigerian Computer Emergency Response Team (ngCERT). The ngCERT rated the probability and damage level of the new malware as high,” he said.
Adinde said that between July and October 2021, Lyceum was implicated in attacks against ISPs and telecoms in Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.
He said once a victim’s system was compromised, the attackers would conduct surveillance on specific targets while Lyceum would attempt to deploy two different kinds of malware – Shark and Milan (known together as James).
“Both malware are backdoors. Shark, a 32-bit executable written in C# and .NET, generates a configuration file for domain name system (DNS) tunnelling or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) C2 communications; whereas Milan – a 32-bit Remote Access Trojan (RAT) retrieves data,” Adinde said.
“Both are able to communicate with the group’s command-and-control (C2) servers. The APT maintains a C2 server network that connects to the group’s backdoors, consisting of over 20 domains, including six that were previously not associated with the threat actors.
“According to reports, individual accounts at companies of interest are usually targeted, and then once these accounts are breached, they are used as a springboard to launch spear-phishing attacks against high-profile executives in an organization.
“The report suggests that not only do these attackers seek out data on subscribers and connected third-party companies, but once compromised, threat actors or their sponsors can also use these industries to surveil individuals of interest.”
Adinde advised telecommunication companies and ISPs to adopt multiple layers of security and constant network monitoring to protect against potential attacks.
He also advised telecom consumers to ensure the consistent usage of firewalls to help detect and prevent attacks.
