- 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
- ETDA Threat Group Card apt.etda.or.th
- Malpedia malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de