Microsoft's Digital Threat Analysis Center has linked a recent cyber attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to an Iranian nation-state actor. The group, which calls itself Holy Souls and has also been identified as Emennet Pasargad by the US Department of Justice, claimed to have obtained the personal information of more than 200,000 Charlie Hebdo customers. This data included full names, telephone numbers, and home and email addresses of accounts that had subscribed to or purchased merchandise from the magazine. Microsoft believes this attack was in response to a cartoon contest conducted by the magazine. The stolen information could put the magazine's subscribers at risk of being targeted by extremist organizations. This announcement came at the same time as new research which showed that most UK IT leaders think foreign states are using the ChatGPT chatbot maliciously. The attack is thought to be revenge for the cartoon competition, which was held to coincide with the eighth anniversary of an attack on the magazine's offices. The group advertised the stolen data for sale for 20 Bitcoin. To amplify the campaign, numerous French-language sockpuppet accounts were used to post criticisms of the cartoons and taunting messages. This type of sockpuppet account has been seen in other Iranian nation-state campaigns. The FBI has stated that a key goal of Iranian influence operations is to undermine public confidence in the security of the victims' networks and data, as well as embarrass victim companies and targeted countries.
This Cyber News was published on www.csoonline.com. Publication date: Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:45:03 +0000