Mobile APT Attack on Amazon CEO
Lookout Coverage and Recommendation for Admins
Lookout implemented detection over the air for the initial set of apps known be using the Mintegral SDK shortly after discovery. Any occurrences of apps with the Mintegral SDK will appear in the Apps section of the admin console classified as Riskware. As more apps are discovered to have this SDK, Lookout will continuously implement additional coverage.
Lookout continues to monitor Mintegral SDK releases and will update and adjust coverage when the malicious capabilities are removed. This will ensure that benign versions of previously flagged apps are not classified as Riskware.
Overview
Recently, news broke of Amazon’s CEO’s phone being hacked via a video sent on WhatsApp. The responsible account is linked to the Saudi Crown Prince and sent the seemingly harmless file, which ended up being malicious. FTI Consulting conducted a forensic investigation of the device after the rate of data leaving the CEO’s phone increased exponentially after he clicked the video file.
While FTI didn’t confirm many specifics of the investigation, this greatly resembles advanced mobile malware similar to Pegasus.
Lookout Analysis
Lookout worked together with Citizen Lab to first discover and analyze Pegasus back in 2016. Since then, Lookout has provided threat-behavior-based detections to protect against similar mobile Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) similar to Pegasus such as eSurvAgent, Monokle, and ViperRAT.
Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security (MES) and Phishing & Content Protection (PCP) can both protect a device in this scenario in unique ways. MES will detect and protect a compromised device and malware associated with threats like APTs. PCP will monitor the web traffic to and from the device to ensure it’s not communicating with and Command and Control (C2) servers or other known malicious websites
Authors
Lookout
Lookout is a cybersecurity company that makes it possible for tens of millions of individuals, enterprises and government agencies to be both mobile and secure. Powered by a dataset of virtually all the mobile code in the world -- 40 million apps and counting -- the Lookout Security Cloud can identify connections that would otherwise go unseen and predict and stop mobile attacks before they do harm. The world’s leading mobile network operators, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EE, KDDI, Orange, Sprint, T-Mobile and Telstra, have selected Lookout as its preferred mobile security solution. Lookout is also partnered with such enterprise leaders as AirWatch, Ingram Micro, Microsoft, and MobileIron. Headquartered in San Francisco, Lookout has offices in Amsterdam, Boston, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
