Savage Comments on Possible Spear Phishing Attack by Russian Hackers

Apr 30, 2015
CSE Prof. Stefan Savage

There is a new type of cyberwar that goes beyond phishing scams. A security firm reports that in so-called "spear phishing", a group of hackers get hold of confidential "lure" documents that can be dangled in front of officials to get them to open emails with malicious attachments. The first large-scale case of spear phishing was the attack on Sony Pictures, but now the security firm Lookingglass says a dedicated group of hackers -- probably on behalf of Russia -- was successful in getting Ukrainians military, counterintelligence, border patrol and local police to open the attachments, making it possible for the hackers to place malware on Ukrainian computer systems to gather confidential documents. In a report on National Public Radio, CSE Prof. Stefan Savage warned that in cyber attacks such as this one, the evidence is usually circumstantial because "researchers have the digital version of tire tracks and gun casings --- not DNA and fingerprints," reported NPR. Savage noted that anyone could have carried out the attack technically. "The question as to be, 'who else would have the motivation to do it?", because this is a significant piece of work," said Savage. "It's effort."

Read or listen to the full NPR article on spear phisphing.