- Category
- State · Attributed to a state or working for one.
- Origin
- Russia(high confidence)
- Sponsor
- Russian Federation
- Motivation
- Espionage; Information theft and espionage
- Seen
- 2012–2026
- Status
- Active
- ATT&CK
- G0100 · 22 techniques
- Sources
- 8 sources carry it
- Identifier
- GINC-APT-0127 · inception
RussiaWhat it is
Inception is a cyber espionage group active since at least 2014. The group has targeted multiple industries and governmental entities primarily in Russia, but has also been active in the United States and throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Names
The names each vendor, agency and source gives it. Naming differs by who tracks the actor, so one group carries many.
- MITRE ATT&CK
- G0100
- PwC
- Blue Odin
- Thales
- ATK116
- Operations
- Operation “Cloud Atlas”, Operation “RedOctober”
- Other names
- Inception Framework, ATK 116, Clean Ursa, Cloud Atlas, Inception Framework, Cloud Atlas, Oxygen, The Rocra
Attribution
Each attribution is a claim: who makes it, and to whom. Western and Eastern sources are kept apart, as they often disagree.
Western sources
- ETDA / ThaiCERTRussia
- MISP Galaxy (CFR tagging)Russia
- ThreatActor.info (Malpedia et al.)Russia · high
Targets
- Countries
- Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Congo, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, South Africa, Suriname, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam
- Sectors
- Aerospace, Defense, Embassies, Energy, Engineering, Financial, Government, Oil and gas, Private sector, Research
Tools
The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.
- CloudDuke
- Cyber Eye RAT
- CyberGate
- LaZagne
- PowerShower
- SPACESHIP
- UNITEDRAKE
- VBShower
Sources
- MITRE ATT&CK attack.mitre.org
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de