Iran-Linked BladedFeline Hits Iraqi and Kurdish Targets with Whisper and Spearal Malware
Early in 2024, a fresh round of cyberattacks on Kurdish and Iraqi government officials had been linked to a hacker group with ties to Iran.
The activity is associated with a threat group that ESET monitors as BladedFeline, which is deemed to be a sub-cluster of OilRig, a well-known Iranian nation-state cyber actor, with a medium degree of confidence. According to reports, it began operating in September 2017 and targeted Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials.
The Slovak cybersecurity firm told The Hacker News in a technical report that this gang creates malware to preserve and increase access into Iraqi and KRG institutions.
BladedFeline has continuously attempted to keep illegal access to Kurdish diplomatic officials while also taking advantage of a local Uzbek telecom c...