For at least a decade , a wispy hacker group has been targeting people throughout India , sometimes using its digital powers to plant fabricated grounds of criminal activity on their twist . That phony evidence has , in turn , often provided a pretext for the victims ’ stop .
Areportpublished this week by cybersecurity business firm Sentinel One reveal extra detail about the group , illume the way in which its digital contaminating tricks have been used to follow and direct “ human rights activist , human rights withstander , academics , and lawyers ” throughout India .
The radical , which researchers have dubbed “ ModifiedElephant , ” is largely preoccupy with spotting , but sometimes it intervenes to obviously frame its target for crimes . Researchers write :
Image: Sean Gladwell (Getty Images)
The objective lens of ModifiedElephant is retentive - term surveillance that at times resolve with the delivery of ‘ evidence’—files that criminate the target in specific criminal offence — prior to handily coordinate taking into custody .
The most big case involve Elephant centers around Maoist activist Rona Wilson and a chemical group of his comrade who , in 2018 , were arrested by India security measure services and accused of plotting to overturn the authorities . Evidence for the hypothecate plot of land — include a word document detailing design to assassinate the nation ’s prime minister , Narendra Modi — was see on Wilson ’s laptop . However , later forensic analysis of the gimmick showed that the document were actually fake and had been planted using malware . concord to Sentinel researchers , it was Elephant that put them there .
This case , which attain greater photo afterbeing coveredby the Washington Post , was blown undetermined after the aforementioned laptop computer was analyzed by a digital forensics house , Boston - basedArsenal Consulting . Arsenal at long last concluded that Wilson and all of his so - called cobalt - conspirator , as well as many other activists , had been targeted with digital use . In a report , the ship’s company explained how broad the intrusion was :
Arsenal has connected the same assailant to a meaning malware base which has been deployed over the course of approximately four twelvemonth to not only round and compromise Mr. Wilson ’s computer for 22 calendar month , but to attack his Centennial State - defendants in the Bhima Koregaon case and defendants in other high - visibility Amerind showcase as well .
How did the hackers get the documents onto the computer in the first place ?
According to Sentinel One’sreport , Elephant uses uncouth cut dick and techniques to derive a foothold in victims ’ computers . Phishing emails , typically tailored to the victim ’s interestingness , are load with malicious document that hold commercially useable outside access cock ( RATs)—easy - to - function programs available on the dark web that can pirate estimator . Specifically , Elephant has been show to expend DarkComet and Netwire , two well - known brands . Once a dupe is successfully phished and the hacker ’ malware is downloaded , the RAT allows Elephant comprehensive ascendency over the victim ’s machine ; they can restfully deal surveillance or , as in Wilson ’s slip , deploy phony , incriminating documents , researchers pen .
It ’s all pretty nefarious . As with anything in the hacker worldly concern , it ’s difficult to know definitively who “ Elephant ” in reality is . However , obvious contextual evidence suggests that the group has the Native American government ’s “ interests ” in mind , researchers indite :
We maintain that ModifiedElephant action aligns crisply with Indian body politic pastime and that there is an observable correlativity between ModifiedElephant attack and the arrest of individuals in controversial , politically - charged case .
Unfortunately , ModifiedElephant is n’t the only grouping out there that has been doing this variety of thing . An entirely different chemical group is believed to have conductedsimilar operationsagainst Baris Pehlivan , a journalist in Turkey who was remand for 19 calendar month in 2016 after the Turkish government accused him of terrorism . Digital forensics later revealed that the documents used to justify Pehlivan ’s charges had been planted , much like those on Wilson ’s laptop computer .
All in all , it ’s pretty worrying stuff . “ Many questions about this menace actor and their operations remain , ” Sentinel One researchers write , of Elephant . “ However , one thing is clean : Critics of authoritarian governing around the world must carefully sympathise the proficient capabilities of those who would seek to silence them . ”
Computer securityCrimeLaw , CrimeNarendra ModiSecurity
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