07 December 2023

Kremlin state sponsored hackers targeted a large petroleum refinery

According to a report on December 20, 2022, it has been confirmed that the Russian sponsored group Gamaredon attempted an attack in August against a major oil refining company in a NATO country, but failed in its attempt. The group reportedly uses phishing campaigns to infect targets with information-stealing malware. The group mainly uses e-mails with lures in Ukrainian. More recently, the group has reportedly also started using lures in English. This type of attack confirms the Russian orientation that has been in place for possibly a few months now, which prioritises targeting energy sector organisations that are related to NATO countries or Ukraine. It is possible that other attack campaigns, successful or not, will be launched during the winter period in order to put pressure on countries such as the European Union which are already affected by the energy and economic crisis.