The Ministry of Defense has identified and thwarted a phishing attack against the defense industries

The Ministry of Defense has identified and thwarted a phishing attack against employees of the defense industries in Israel, which was intended to infiltrate their corporate computer networks, the ministry announced today (Wednesday). According to the Ministry of Defense, the investigation of the affair shows that the attempted attack was carried out by an international cyber system called "Lazarus", which is backed by a foreign country, with the help of social engineering and impersonation.
In a phishing attack, the attacker impersonates another person in order to deceive the victim and cause him to provide personal information such as name and user and password. Many surfers have encountered such attacks in the form of a fake email request from entities such as the bank or PayPal announcing that there is a problem with the account and asking the surfer to connect to it in order to handle it. Surfers who actually respond to the request and click on the link in the message are directed to an impersonating site, where all the details entered there are transmitted directly to the attacker.
The identified attack is a variation of a phishing attack known as Spear Fishing, in which a customized contact is made to the person the attacker seeks to trap. In this case, according to the Ministry of Defense, the attackers created fictitious profiles on LinkedIn, in which they impersonated managers or executives in the human resources departments of international companies, and approached employees of leading defense industries in Israel in an attempt to develop a dialogue with them.
"During the process of submitting the job offers, the attackers tried to infect the computers of Israeli industry workers and infiltrate the companies' networks in order to collect sensitive security information," the ministry said. "And were thwarted by Malam's technology unit in the Ministry of Defense and by the defense industries' cyber defense systems, without causing damage."