Agrius Iranian APT Group Cuts Into Diamond Industry

A previous cyberattack on an Israeli software developer is being used by Agrius Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group to launch wiper attacks against various organizations in the diamond industry.

Although Agrius and its attack against Israeli IT and HR companies last February was previously known, using the "Fantasy" wiper in attacks is new, according to researchers at ESET.

Fantasy is a modified iteration of the Apostle malware, the team said. But while its predecessor Apostle masqueraded as ransomware, Fantasy dispenses with the charade and moves directly to destroying files.

So far, ESET reported, Fantasy victims have been found in Hong Kong, Israel, and South Africa.

"Agrius is a newer Iran-aligned group targeting victims in Israel and the United Arab Emirates since 2020," ESET researchers explained. "Agrius exploits known vulnerabilities in internet-facing applications to install webshells, then conducts internal reconnaissance before moving laterally and then deploying its malicious payloads."