FireEye, a Milpitas based Cybersecurity Company has identified APT41 as the latest Chinese cyber threat which has been specifically targeting firms related to healthcare, gaming, high tech and media industries from the past few months.
Though the said hacking group is reportedly active from the past 7 years, it has changed its attack parameters on the influence of Chinese military intelligence say, experts.
“Earlier, APT41 was only interested in gaining on a financial note by targeting companies operating across the world. But now it has turned a bit aggressive by conducting both espionage and cybercrime activities only on adversaries related to the nation”, says Sandra Joyce, Senior Vice President of Global Threat Intelligence, FireEye.
As per a source from FireEye, countries like Japan, Italy, United States, United Kingdom. India, France, Myanmar, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, and Hong Kong are reported to be on the hit list of APT41.
APT41 is reported to be collecting strategic intelligence from Healthcare companies, technology firms, and telecommunication companies and have so far succeeded in stealing intellectual property from more than 52 companies.
Video Game companies are also being strategically targeted by the bad actors of the said hacking group who are also well qualified in stealing virtual currencies such as Bitcoins, Ethereum, Monero and have potential to deploy ransomware into government & corporate networks added Sandra Joyce.
Furthermore, these threat actors have immense patience in pursuing their victims for months and sometimes years adds FireEye in its statement.
As it is a state-funded hacking group it is believed that APT41 has evaded the regular scrutiny by Chinese authorities.
