{ "id": "14099cd7-b9db-4847-a867-94f645ec9df6", "created_at": "2026-04-06T01:30:01.652242Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:12:38.488968Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "e7ca2681510b1c79cfc827ed4168f65a814a7b4c", "title": "Russia-linked APT group DustSquad targets diplomatic entities in Central Asia", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 152596, "plain_text": "Russia-linked APT group DustSquad targets diplomatic entities in\r\nCentral Asia\r\nBy Pierluigi Paganini\r\nPublished: 2018-10-16 · Archived: 2026-04-06 00:46:22 UTC\r\nKaspersky experts published a detailed analysis of the attacks conducted by the\r\nRussian-linked cyber espionage group DustSquad.\r\nEarlier October, security experts from ESET shared details about the operations of a cyber espionage group\r\ntracked as Nomadic Octopus, a threat actor focused on diplomatic entities in Central Asia.\r\nThe group has been active since at least 2015, ESET researchers presented their findings at the Virus Bulletin\r\nconference.\r\n“ESET researchers recently discovered an interesting cyber espionage campaign active in several countries of\r\nCentral Asia. We attribute these attacks to a previously undocumented APT group that we have named Nomadic\r\nOctopus.” states the blog post published by Virus Bulletin.\r\nhttps://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/77165/apt/russia-linked-apt-dustsquad.html\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\n“Our findings suggest that this APT group has been active since at least 2015. The main goal of Nomadic Octopus\r\nappears to be cyber espionage against high-value targets, including diplomatic missions in the region”\r\nThe experts presented their findings at the Virus Bulletin conference.\r\nNow Kaspersky experts published a detailed analysis of the attacks conducted by the group, tracked by the\r\nRussian firm as DustSquad, and the tools they used.\r\nKaspersky is monitoring the activity of the group for the last two years, DustSquad is a Russian-language\r\ncyberespionage group particularly active in Central Asian.\r\n“For the last two years we have been monitoring a Russian-language cyberespionage actor that focuses on\r\nCentral Asian users and diplomatic entities. We named the actor DustSquad and have provided private\r\nintelligence reports to our customers on four of their campaigns involving custom Android and Windows\r\nmalware.” states the analysis published by Kaspersky Lab.\r\n“The name was originally coined by ESET in 2017 after the 0ct0pus3.php script used by the actor on their old C2\r\nservers. We also started monitoring the malware and, using Kaspersky Attribution Engine based on similarity\r\nalgorithms, discovered that Octopus is related to DustSquad, something we reported in April 2018. “\r\nThe group targeted the victims with spear-phishing emails, the threat actors use Russian malware filenames.\r\nKaspersky tracked a campaign conducted by the group back to 2014 when hackers targeted entities in the former\r\nSoviet republics of Central Asia, plus Afghanistan.\r\nIn April 2018, the researchers discovered a new Octopus sample developed to target Windows systems, the\r\nmalicious code had been disguised as a Russian version of the Telegram app used by the Democratic Choice\r\n(DVK) opposition party in Kazakhstan.\r\nAttackers attempted to exploit the threaten of the Kazakhstan government to block Telegram over its use by the\r\nDVK.\r\nhttps://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/77165/apt/russia-linked-apt-dustsquad.html\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nThe Octopus Trojan is written in Delphi, the same programming language used by Russian-linked APT\r\ngroup Sofacy for the development of the Zebrocy backdoor.\r\nThe malicious code backdoor features, including the ability to execute commands, upload and download files,\r\ntake screenshots, and finding *.rar archives on the host.\r\nExperts noticed that even if they found malware used by both  DustSquad and Sofacy APT on the compromised\r\nmachines, the two cyber espionage groups are not linked.\r\nKaspersky pointed out that many components of the Octopus malware are still unfinished, likely attackers created\r\nthe malicious code in a hurry and not implemented certain features such as communication functionalities.\r\n“Political entities in Central Asia have been targeted throughout 2018 by different actors, including IndigoZebra,\r\nSofacy (with Zebrocy malware) and most recently by DustSquad (with Octopus malware),” continues the\r\nKaspersky report.\r\n“Interestingly, we observed some victims who are ‘threat magnets’ targeted by all of them. From our experience\r\nwe can say that the interest shown by threat actors in this region is now high, and the traditional ‘players’ have\r\nbeen joined by relative newcomers like DustSquad that have sprung up locally.”\r\nAdditional technical details are reported in the analysis, including IoCs.\r\n[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]\r\nPierluigi Paganini\r\n(Security Affairs – DustSquad, Russia)\r\n[adrotate banner=”5″]\r\n[adrotate banner=”13″]\r\nSource: https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/77165/apt/russia-linked-apt-dustsquad.html\r\nhttps://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/77165/apt/russia-linked-apt-dustsquad.html\r\nPage 3 of 3", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "MITRE" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/77165/apt/russia-linked-apt-dustsquad.html" ], "report_names": [ "russia-linked-apt-dustsquad.html" ], "threat_actors": [ { "id": "978775b9-369d-44f7-8a42-76d7b9cb42d5", "created_at": "2022-10-25T15:50:23.846105Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:05.36378Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "Nomadic Octopus", "aliases": [ "Nomadic Octopus", "DustSquad" ], "source_name": "MITRE:Nomadic Octopus", "tools": null, "source_id": "MITRE", "reports": null }, { "id": "62f2206e-d8c6-49bb-86fc-63118ac2bf40", "created_at": "2022-10-25T16:07:23.725942Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:04.728159Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "IndigoZebra", "aliases": [ "G0136" ], "source_name": "ETDA:IndigoZebra", "tools": [ "Dropbox" ], "source_id": "ETDA", "reports": null }, { "id": "abb4a645-181b-4237-825f-447ac9b0c16d", "created_at": "2022-10-25T15:50:23.764656Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:05.40558Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "IndigoZebra", "aliases": [ "IndigoZebra" ], "source_name": "MITRE:IndigoZebra", "tools": [ "xCaon", "BoxCaon", "PoisonIvy" ], "source_id": "MITRE", "reports": null }, { "id": "70661552-6715-4750-bf4e-527055d3e7b4", "created_at": 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"730dfa6e-572d-473c-9267-ea1597d1a42b", "created_at": "2023-01-06T13:46:38.389985Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:02.954105Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "APT28", "aliases": [ "Pawn Storm", "ATK5", "Fighting Ursa", "Blue Athena", "TA422", "T-APT-12", "APT-C-20", "UAC-0001", "IRON TWILIGHT", "SIG40", "UAC-0028", "Sofacy", "BlueDelta", "Fancy Bear", "GruesomeLarch", "Group 74", "ITG05", "FROZENLAKE", "Forest Blizzard", "FANCY BEAR", "Sednit", "SNAKEMACKEREL", "Tsar Team", "TG-4127", "STRONTIUM", "Grizzly Steppe", "G0007" ], "source_name": "MISPGALAXY:APT28", "tools": [], "source_id": "MISPGALAXY", "reports": null }, { "id": "e3767160-695d-4360-8b2e-d5274db3f7cd", "created_at": "2022-10-25T16:47:55.914348Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:03.610018Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "IRON TWILIGHT", "aliases": [ "APT28 ", "ATK5 ", "Blue Athena ", "BlueDelta ", "FROZENLAKE ", "Fancy Bear ", "Fighting Ursa ", "Forest Blizzard ", "GRAPHITE ", "Group 74 ", "PawnStorm ", "STRONTIUM 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