The NGO Human Rights Watch denounced Monday that the Iranian government has allegedly supported hackers who have targeted activists, journalists and politicians in recent months.
«Iran’s state-backed hackers are aggressively using sophisticated social engineering and credential harvesting tactics to access sensitive information and contacts held by researchers focused on Middle East and civil society groups,» said HRW information security director Abir Ghattas.
«This significantly increases the risks faced by journalists and human rights defenders in Iran and elsewhere in the region,» Ghattas added.
The organization has put the number of people who have been hacked at 18, including activists, journalists, researchers, academics, diplomats and politicians working on Middle East issues. Most of them reportedly received suspicious messages between September 15 and November 25 this year.
Three of the victims — a U.S. journalist, a women’s rights advocate and a consultant for Refugees International — reportedly had their personal data such as contacts or cloud storage drives, as well as email, compromised.
«In a Middle East region plagued by surveillance threats to activists, it is essential that digital security researchers not only publicize and promote the findings, but also prioritize the protection of activists, journalists, and civil society leaders in the region,» the Human Right Watch researcher urged.
The NGO’s research has revealed inadequacies in Google’s security protections to safeguard user data, as the people who suffered the attacks were reportedly not notified by the company.
HRW has also called on Google to «quickly» strengthen security warnings on Gmail accounts to better protect the most at-risk individuals, such as journalists and human rights defenders, from attacks.
HRW has attributed the phishing attack to an Iranian government-affiliated entity known as APT42 and called Charming Kitten. In fact, several security firms have reported campaigns by the aforementioned hacking company targeting researchers or civil society groups.
