IRON TWILIGHT

IRON TWILIGHT is a threat actor believed to be associated with the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. This association has been suggested by various researchers, including those from CrowdStrike and CTU, based on the characteristics of the group's activities. The group became particularly active between mid-2015 and 2016, during which time it was used by the Russian government to target a variety of organizations. This included not only military and regional affairs but also broader political and strategic operations, such as U.S. political operations. This shift in focus suggests that the Kremlin views IRON TWILIGHT's role as supporting Russian 'active measures', a Soviet doctrine of manipulating popular opinion to align with Russian strategic interests. IRON TWILIGHT demonstrated its operational capability through a range of cyber attacks, including spear-phishing campaigns against Gmail users and NATO personnel. It quickly capitalized on disclosed vulnerabilities in web browsers and associated plugins, indicating an opportunistic approach. However, despite its successes, IRON TWILIGHT is considered less sophisticated than other Russian threat groups. Its operations have included attempts to compromise and embarrass any organization viewed as hostile by the Russian government, as evidenced by attacks against the Dutch Safety Board and WADA. In a bid to divert attention from the actual origin of leaked material, IRON TWILIGHT is believed to have created the Guccifer 2.0 persona and the DCLeaks website. This could be seen as part of the group's 'active measures' operations, potentially aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Given this past behavior, CTU researchers anticipate similar operations targeting elections of strategic interest to the Russian government. As such, timely implementation of patches is crucial for protecting systems against this threat actor.