GINC-APT-0322 · Targeted, sponsor unknown

Operation Ghoul

Category
Targeted, sponsor unknown · Targeted intrusions with no sponsor attributed.
Origin
Unknown
Motivation
Information theft and espionage
Seen
2016
Sources
6 sources carry it
Identifier
GINC-APT-0322 · operation-ghoul

What it is

Operation Ghoul is a profit-driven threat actor that targeted over 130 organizations in 30 countries, primarily in the industrial and engineering sectors. They employed high-quality social engineering techniques, such as spear-phishing emails disguised as payment advice from a UAE bank, to distribute malware. The group's main motivation is financial gain through the sale of stolen intellectual property and business intelligence, as well as attacks on banking accounts. Their attacks were effective, particularly against companies that were unprepared to detect them.

Targets

Countries
Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States
Sectors
Education, Engineering, Industrial, IT, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Shipping and Logistics

Tools

The tools and malware families the sources tie to it.

  • OpGhoul

Sources