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Threat Actor Profile FANCY BEAR
Exploring the depths of FANCY BEAR activities and tactics.
FANCY BEAR has marked its presence in the cybercrime world since March 2022, actively targeting industries such as Entertainment, Consumer Goods, Pharmaceutical, Cryptocurrency, and many others across 14 countries including Canada, Switzerland, Italy, and the United States. This actor is notorious for utilizing malware like CS-PARALYZER, Alphv, and CobaltStrike, among others, to infiltrate and exploit victim networks.
FANCY BEAR’s operations are characterized by a blend of sophisticated social engineering tactics and advanced technical methods to bypass security measures, including multifactor authentication.
With criminal motivations, FANCY BEAR’s activities have evolved over time, showing adaptability and a keen focus on lucrative targets. Their tactics include smishing, vishing, and exploitation of IT helpdesks to perform actions such as self-service password resets for targeted accounts, directly impacting the security posture of affected organizations.
Actor Profile
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Actors | FANCY BEAR |
| Last active | Mar 2024 |
| Status | Active |
| Origin | Russian Federation |
| Actor type | Targeted |
| Motivation | State-Sponsored |
| Community identifiers | Sednit, Sofacy, Swallowtail, Forest Blizzard, APT28, Pawn Storm, Iron Twilight, UAC-0028, Sofacy Group, STRONTIUM, Tsar-Team, SNAKEMACKEREL, Fighting Ursa, Tsar Team, Zebrocy, TG-4127, FROZENLAKE |
| Target industries | Utilities Energy Political Parties Aerospace Nonprofit Extractive Government Media National Government Military Defense Hospitality NGO |
| Target countries | China Serbia Belarus Canada Malaysia Sweden Switzerland Latvia Hungary Armenia Belgium Poland Spain Netherlands Georgia United States Azerbaijan Slovakia United Kingdom Brazil Ukraine Romania South Korea Kazakhstan Bulgaria Croatia Germany Iran Montenegro France Uzbekistan |
| Malware developed | - |
| Malware used | X-Agent-Linux CppDown SnvMse TrsLoader PyLdapDump STEELHOOK WinIDSDropper MASEPIE AutoDown DownRage HeaderDropper Credomap PocoDown SmtpDown Xor26Dropper ResourceDropper BayernDropper OceanDrive DownRageDropper WinIDS OverlayDropper DolphinCape OceanSteal ChannelingLoader GoDown Korobka Cannon X-Agent JaguarTooth DealersChoice X-Agent-iOS TrsDropper DownRage-macOS FoozerDropper Foozer Graphite Sofacy SofacyDropper X-Agent-Dropper X-Agent-Android OceanMap Zekapab LoJack TrsLoaderContainer GoDownGRPC DelphDown Xtunnel XmasDown X-Agent-macOS |
| Actor activity | Sandbox reports: 0, Endpoint detections: 0, Vulnerabilities: 0 |
| Intel reports | radware.com |
Detailed Analysis
FANCY BEAR’s campaign against high-revenue private sector organizations demonstrates their strategic shift towards ransomware as a primary means of extortion. Their initial focus on CRM and BPO firms, as well as telecommunication and technology companies, has expanded to include a broad array of sectors.
The group leverages identity abuse, targeting IT and security personnel for their access to critical systems and documentation, which facilitates lateral movement and account compromise within victim networks. C-suite executives and individuals with direct access to financial resources are also prime targets for FANCY BEAR.
Key Takeaways:
- Sophisticated social-engineering techniques are central to gaining initial access.
- The group exploits single sign-on (SSO) dashboards, Microsoft Office 365/Azure, VPNs, and edge devices.
- SIM-swapping, MFA notification fatigue, and manipulation of helpdesk agents are common tactics to bypass multifactor authentication.
By understanding FANCY BEAR’s methods and motivations, organizations can better prepare and protect themselves against this and similar cybercriminal actors.
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