Description

Kaspersky security researchers found that threat actors targeting Persian-speaking practitioners of the Bahai Faith, a religion developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, with a malicious VPN application that installs SandStrike spyware on victims' devices. Additionally, this malicious VPN app is being promoted by attackers as an easy way to evade censorship of religious materials in some regions. According to Kaspersky, SandStrike malware operators used fake social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram with more than 1,000 followers to lure victims into downloading spyware implants. Several of these social media accounts contain a link to a Telegram channel that hosts links to download the malicious VPN applications created by the attacker. In addition, being fully functional and using its own VPN infrastructure, the VPN client also installs SandStrike which steals sensitive data and transmits it to its operators. It also monitors compromised Android devices to help its creators keep track of the victim's activities, including call logs and contact lists. However, a particular threat group supposedly behind these activities has not been identified by security researchers who found the malware in the wild.