Hackers are targeting telecom companies to steal 5G secrets

In recent news, a few cybersecurity researchers at McAfee discovered that a cyber-espionage campaign is targeting telecommunication companies around the world with cyberattacks in order to crucial data in regards to 5G technology.

This campaign, which has been dubbed as ‘Operation Diànxùn’, is currently targeting telecommunications providers in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. According to the researchers, these attacks are the work of a hacking group operating in China.

This group, primarily known as ‘Mustang Panda’ and ‘RedDelta’, is well known for hacking multiple organizations globally. Currently, at least 23 telecommunication companies have been targeted as a part of this cyber-espionage campaign. As of now, it hasn’t been disclosed how many attacks were successful.

Currently, it has been determined that the victims were directed towards a malicious phishing domain that was under the control of the attackers that they utilized to deliver malware to victims.

These malicious web pages masquerade as some Huawei careers site which almost looks like the real thing. Furthermore, it was confirmed that Huawei was not involved in the cyber-espionage campaign. When users visited this fake site, it delivered a malicious Flash application that was used to drop the Cobalt Strike backdoor onto the visiting machine hence giving hackers the ability to steal sensitive information.

The targets are specifically those who happen to have specific yet sensitive knowledge in regards to 5G technology.