Hackers targeted the MH17 plane crash investigators
Onderzoeksraad voor VeiligheidA still from the video released by the Dutch Safety Board which shows the moment a rocket hit the plane, bringing it down.
The Dutch Safety Board, which investigated the MH17 plane crash, has been the victim of a phishing attack, according to a report from researchers Trend Micro (via The Register).The group responsible, known as "Pawn Storm," have a history of targetting groups that are critical of Russia, including those opposed to Russia's interventions in Syria.
Pawn Storm sent out fake log-in request emails to investigators working for the Dutch Safety Board in an effort to get them to enter their personal details, allowing hackers access to sensitive information.
It's not clear what data the hackers obtained.
"We discovered that a fake server mimicking an SFTP server of the Dutch Safety Board was set up on September 28, 2015; later a fake VPN server of the same organization was set up on October 14, 2015. It is very likely these were used for credential phishing attacks against personnel of the Safety Board in order to get unauthorized access to both the SFTP and the VPN server," Feike Hacquebord of Trend Micro wrote.
The group has also targeted the White House and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, using similar methods to gain access to sensitive data. Much of work from "Pawn Storm" focuses on individuals and activists within Russia, however.