Cybersecurity incident — 2020-01-30 00:00:00
Affected organization: Erfan Kasraie
Affected country: Germany
Industry: Other Services (except Public Administration)
Event type: Exploitive
Event subtype: Exploitation of Application Server,Exploitation of End Hosts,Exploitation of Data in Transit
Motive: Political-Espionage
Actor: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (APT 35 Charming Kitten)
Actor type: Nation-State
Actor country: Iran (Islamic Republic of)

The Iranian state-backed threat actor Charming Kitten impersonated prominent journalists and sent targets fake interview requests in order to steal their credentials and send them malware. Among the victims is Erfan Kasraie, an Iranian academic who received a fake message from Farnaz Fassihi, an Iranian-American journalist.