Fancy Bear, hackers who the U.S, and other governments believe to be Russian intelligence, appear to be impersonating the State Department in a new hacking campaign that's been observed attacking several sectors. FireEye, the cybersecurity company, first made the announcement over Twitter.
The big picture: It's nothing new for Fancy Bear to impersonate government officials, or anyone else who could lure people into downloading a file. That doesn't make it less aggressive — or less dangerous — for them to use the State Department to accomplish their goal.
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FireEye is not making a firm attribution to Fancy Bear at this time, just saying the attacks show similarities to their toolkit and techniques.
The targets spanned different sectors: defense, law enforcement, local government, media, pharmaceuticals, think tanks, transportation and the public sector. They appear to be the same or similar targets to a 2016 campaign associated with Fancy Bear.
What they're saying: "FireEye is continuing to investigate the true intention of the campaign," said Nick Carr, senior manager of adversary methods at FireEye.
