Cybersecurity incident — 2020-01-30 00:00:00
Affected organization: Relative of Azadeh Shafiee
Affected country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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. One of the fake messages was from Azadeh Shafiee, an anchor for London-based broadcaster Iran International, that attempted to target one of her relatives.