LONDON (Reuters) - Hackers posed as recruiters working for U.S. defence giants Collins Aerospace and General Dynamics on LinkedIn to break into the ne

Cyber spies use LinkedIn to hack European defence firms

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2020-06-17 19:14:02

LONDON (Reuters) - Hackers posed as recruiters working for U.S. defence giants Collins Aerospace and General Dynamics on LinkedIn to break into the networks of military contractors in Europe, cybersecurity researchers said on Wednesday.

The cyber spies were able to compromise the systems of at least two defence and aerospace firms in Central Europe last year by approaching employees with pseudo job offers from the U.S. firms, Slovakia-based cybersecurity firm ESET said.

The attackers then used LinkedIn’s private messaging feature to send documents containing malicious code which the employees were tricked into opening, said Jean-Ian Boutin, ESET’s head of threat research.

ESET declined to name the victims, citing client confidentiality, and said it was unclear if any information was stolen. General Dynamics and Collins Aerospace, which is owned by Raytheon Technologies, declined immediate comment.

ESET was unable to determine the identity of the hackers but said the attacks had some links to a North Korean group known as Lazarus, which has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of orchestrating a string of high-profile cyber heists on victims including Sony Pictures and the Central Bank of Bangladesh.

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