Palmerworm

Palmerworm, also known as BlackTech, Temp.Overboard, Circuit Panda, and Radio Panda, is a threat actor group that has been active since at least 2013. This group has demonstrated extensive capabilities in targeting various sectors such as government, industrial, technology, media, electronics, and telecommunication, including entities supporting the militaries of the U.S. and Japan. Their operations have primarily focused on East Asia, specifically Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong, since 2007. Palmerworm's activities in a recent campaign were first noticed in August 2019 when they infiltrated the networks of a Taiwanese media company and a Chinese construction company. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has recognized Palmerworm for its adeptness in modifying router malware without detection and exploiting routers' domain-trust relationships to gain access to victim networks. The group maintained a presence on the networks of a construction and finance company for several months, indicating their persistent approach. Despite no clear evidence on the infection vector used by Palmerworm in this particular campaign, previous instances have documented the group's use of spear-phishing emails to gain initial network access. In addition to their sophisticated intrusion methods, Palmerworm has been publicly reported to use stolen code-signing certificates in prior attack campaigns. This aligns with their strategy of using "living-off-the-land" tactics, which involve exploiting dual-use tools commonly used by legitimate users. These advanced persistent threat (APT) groups like Palmerworm have increasingly adopted such tactics in recent years, making them a significant concern for cybersecurity agencies across the globe.