REDMOND, Washington: Microsoft says Iranian hackers have posed as conference organizers in Germany and 萝莉视频 in an attempt to break into the email accounts of 鈥渉igh-profile鈥� people with spoofed invitations.
The tech company said Wednesday it detected attempts by the hacking group it calls Phosphorus to trick former government officials, policy experts and academics.
The targets included more than 100 prominent people invited by the hackers to the Munich Security Conference, which is attended by world leaders each February, and the upcoming Think 20 Summit, which begins later this week in 萝莉视频 but is online-only this year.
鈥淲e believe Phosphorus is engaging in these attacks for intelligence collection purposes,鈥� said Tom Burt, Microsoft鈥檚 security chief, in a prepared statement. 鈥淭he attacks were successful in compromising several victims, including former ambassadors and other senior policy experts who help shape global agendas and foreign policies in their respective countries.鈥�
Microsoft didn鈥檛 identify the nationalities of the people targeted. It said the activity is unrelated to the upcoming US elections.
Wednesday鈥檚 announcement refers to the hacking group as an 鈥淚ranian actor鈥� but doesn鈥檛 explicitly tie it to the Iranian government. Microsoft calls it Phosphorus, while others call it APT35 or Charming Kitten.
The Redmond, Washington tech company has been tracking the group since 2013 and has previously accused it of trying to snoop on activists, journalists, political dissidents, defense industry workers and others in the Middle East.
Cybersecurity researchers have said the group typically tries to infiltrate a target鈥檚 personal online accounts and computer networks by luring them into clicking on a link to a compromised website or opening a malicious attachment.