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Financially motivated hackers are helping their espionage counterparts and vice versa
Two players who mostly worked independently are increasingly collaborative.
On Tuesday, the Google-owned Mandiant security firm said the uptick comes amid tighter purse strings and as a means for concealing nation-state-sponsored espionage by making it blend in with financially motivated cyberattacks. Purchasing malware, credentials, or other key resources from illicit forums can be cheaper for state-backed groups than developing them in-house, while also providing some ability to blend in to financially motivated operations and attract less notice." Timestamps in the toolset were identical to those found by security firm Palo Alto Network in the Thor PlugX variant, which company researchers linked to a Chinese espionage group tracked under the names Fireant, Mustang Panda, and Earth Preta.
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