Industrial Espionage Gang Sends Malicious Emails

A cybercrime gang that primarily targets companies from the chemical industry has launched a new series of attacks that involve malware-laden emails purporting to be from Symantec, the security vendor responsible for exposing its operation earlier this year.

Dubbed the Nitro attacks, the gang's original industrial espionage efforts began sometime in July and lasted until September. The attackers' modus operandi involved sending emails that carried a variant of the Poison Ivy backdoor and were specifically crafted for each targeted company... 

"The same group is still active, still targeting chemical companies, and still using the same social engineering modus operandi," security researchers from Symantec said in a blog post on Monday. (more)