ITG18 Hackers exposed his 40GB data accidentally

IBM X-Force Incident Response Intelligence Services (IRIS) has uncovered rare details on the operations of the suspected Iranian threat group ITG18, which overlaps with Charming Kitten and Phosphorous. In the past few weeks, ITG18 has been associated with targeting of  pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. presidential campaigns. Now, due to operational errors—a basic misconfiguration—by suspected ITG18 associates, a server with more than 40 gigabytes of data on their operations has been analyzed by X-Force IRIS analysts.
Rarely are there opportunities to understand how the operator behaves behind the keyboard, and even rarer still are there recordings the operator self-produced showing their operations. But that is exactly what X-Force IRIS uncovered on an ITG18 operator whose OPSEC failures provide a unique behind-the-scenes look into their methods, and potentially, their legwork for a broader operation that is likely underway.
What IBM X-Force IRIS Found

During a three-day period in May 2020, IBM X-Force IRIS discovered the 40 GBs of video and data files being uploaded to a server that hosted numerous ITG18 domains used in earlier 2020 activity. Some of the videos showed the operator managing adversary-created accounts while others showed the operator testing access and exfiltrating data from previously compromised accounts.

Among the information IBM X-Force IRIS uncovered were:

•     In nearly five hours of videos, an ITG18 operator searching through and exfiltrating data from various compromised accounts of a member of U.S. Navy and a personnel officer with nearly two decades of service in Hellenic Navy. Using these accounts could allow the operator to obtain other data on military operations of potential interest to Iran.
•     Failed phishing attempts targeting the personal accounts of an Iranian-American philanthropist and officials of the U.S. State Department.
•     Personas and Iranian phone numbers associated to ITG18 operators

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