The Ghost Squad Hackers (GSH), an offshoot of the hacktivist group Anonymous, has been active during this COVID-19 period after remaining fairly quiet these past couple of years, according to a blog post by cyberthreat intelligence firm Vigilante.
"We think the hacks are probably attempts to undermine public confidence in government at a time of universal unease due to the COVID-19 pandemic," says Adam Darrah, Vigilante's director of intelligence, adding that more such attacks could follow from GSH or other hacktivist groups. "The United States is a highly desirable target, and it would make sense that hacktivists would pour salt on the wounds in a country like Italy, which has had such a hard time."
While most of the incidents are defacements, a common hacktivist tactic, there were instances in which GSH became a root owner of an Indian government server and also leaked administrative accounts from the Australian government, Darrah says. He has no knowledge as to whether any sensitive information was leaked or stolen, he added.
The recent GSH attacks cited in the Vigilante blog took place in Australia, India, Pakistan, Thailand, and Zimbabwe. GSH gained notoriety in 2016 when it defaced Ethiopian government websites following a protest in which government security forces killed nearly 500 students and activists. The group also gained attention during the 2016 Presidential campaign when it launched distributed denial-of-service (DOS) attacks on then-candidate Donald Trump's website and shut down his hotel collection websites. GSH also famously leaked data considered sensitive by the Israeli Defense Forces, an attack it reportedly conducted along with Anon ..
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