Armenia Under Cyber Attacks: Serious Teams, Expensive Assault, Martirosyan

Information security expert Samvel Martirosyan writes on his Facebook page: "In recent days, several revelations from international organizations indicate that Armenia is facing very serious cyber attacks by state-level hacker groups.

Let me say right away that the data is not yet extensive. Google has identified a deep attack against targets in Armenia. Two zero-day vulnerabilities in Google Chrome have been exploited, which I would say indicates that not only a very serious team has been at work, but also that this has been an expensive attack.

Fake Armenian news outlets and clones of real ones were used for the attack - a list is referenced. Google is confident that a state hacker team was involved. While the specific country is not mentioned, I believe that the number of interested and capable countries can be counted on one hand.

The next is from the previously unknown Israeli company Candiru. One should understand that this and the previous case may be connected. Here, for example, a fake replica of the Armenpress site was used for victim exploitation.

The most recent revelations involve the Israeli NSO Group, which sells its spyware known as Pegasus to various power structures around the world. A wide range of Pegasus usage has been revealed, including its use by Azerbaijani authorities against those with opposing viewpoints. However, we have enough data to suggest that during the war, Pegasus was employed by Azerbaijan against Armenia, targeting important figures connected to the government and the military.

For further information on Pegasus and particularly regarding Azerbaijan, refer to the following links:

• The Guardian
• Access Now
• Amnesty International