Polonium
Description
(Microsoft) MSTIC assesses with high confidence that POLONIUM represents an operational group based in Lebanon. We also assess with moderate confidence that the observed activity was coordinated with other actors affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), based primarily on victim overlap and commonality of tools and techniques. Such collaboration or direction from Tehran would align with a string of revelations since late 2020 that the Government of Iran is using third parties to carry out cyber operations on their behalf, likely to enhance Iran’s plausible deniability.
POLONIUM has targeted or compromised more than 20 organizations based in Israel and one intergovernmental organization with operations in Lebanon over the past three months. This actor has deployed unique tools that abuse legitimate cloud services for command and control (C2) across most of their victims. POLONIUM was observed creating and using legitimate OneDrive accounts, then utilizing those accounts as C2 to execute part of their attack operation.
Names
| Name | Name-Giver |
|---|---|
| Polonium | Microsft |
| Plaid Rain | Microsoft |
| Incendiary Jackal | CrowdStrike |
Country
Motivation
- Information theft and espionage
First Seen
2022
Observed Sectors
Observed Countries
Tools
Operations
- 2022-09: POLONIUM targets Israel with Creepy malware https://www.welivesecurity.com/2022/10/11/polonium-targets-israel-creepy-malware/ https://www.deepinstinct.com/blog/polonium-apt-group-uncovering-new-elements
Information
Mitre Attack
Other Information
Uuid
40d95f4c-db45-4311-86a0-328273bf0491
Last Card Change
2025-06-28