Seven years of undetected malware in Latin America

In recent days, from December 8^th to December 12^th 2015, Intersting publications are surffeing online, revealing a story never heard before about unsual cyber incidents in the Latin American region.

The picture is not yet completely clear. Although they appear on several Spanish as well as English sites, the publications at this point are quite limited and further details will probably be discussed and revealed in the future. However, the key elements of this concerning revelation are already known and suggest major cyber security failures, primarily given the fact that they have been occruing since 2008 and were only detected at the end of 2015.

Apparently, this vicious malware campaign has been targeting public figures in various Latin American countries (Ecuador, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil) by using malware, phishing, dummy and bogus websites and fake social media accounts. the death of the Argentinian lawyer Alberto Nisman is said to be connected to these cyber assaults as well.

The campaign was discovered by security researchers at Citizen Lab – an interdisciplinary laboratory in the University of Toronto, and was given the name “Packrat”. The fact that it operated without restrictions for so long, has given rise to the assumption that the attackers (reffered to as a “group” by the English websites and as “pirates” by the Spanish websites) are sponsored by some governmental body. However, other commentaries suggest that this story is not as serious and much less dramatic and “Hollywood-like” than it appears to be. Time will tell and updates will follow.

Webpages used for the writing:

English websites:

http://www.scmagazine.com/malware-campaign-discovered-targeting-latin-america-for-7-years/article/459384/

http://www.securityweek.com/packrat-threat-group-targets-latin-america

https://citizenlab.org/2015/12/packrat-report/

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fa7618cf36a642fb900a4f35b2c986b1/south-america-hacker-team-targets-dissidents-journalists

http://faustasblog.com/2015/12/latin-america-pack-rat-malware-targeted-nisman/

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-reveals-seven-year-south-american-malware.html

Spanish websites:

http://mundocontact.com/grupo-de-piratas-informaticos-ataca-desde-2008-a-opositores-en-latinoamerica/

http://www.14ymedio.com/internacional/Grupo-piratas-informaticos-opositores-Latinoamerica_0_1904209567.html

http://www.radiointereconomia.com/2015/12/09/supuestos-piratas-informaticos-atacan-desde-2008-opositores-en-latinoamerica/