Microsoft says hackers backed by the Iranian government targeted over 100 high-profile potential attendees of two international security and policy conferences.
The group, known as Phosphorus (or APT35), sent spoofed emails masquerading as organizers of the Munich Security Conference, one of the main global security and policy conferences attended by heads of state, and the Think 20 Summit in Saudi Arabia, scheduled for later this month. Microsoft said the spoofed emails were sent to former government officials, academics and policy makers to steal passwords and other sensitive data, like email inboxes.
Microsoft did not comment, when asked, what the goal of the operation was, but the company’s customer security and trust chief Tom Burt said the attacks were carried out for “intelligence collection purposes.”
