Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is warning exiled Iranian activists, human rights groups and others to take further precautions against cyber espionage following cyber attacks on critics of the Iranian government.
The hacker group Charming Kitten is said to be spying on Iranian opposition figures and exiled Iranians, the agency said on Thursday.
The agency also warned lawyers, journalists and others that work on Iran-related issues to exercise greater caution.
The report on Thursday warned that the Iran-affiliated hackers use a sophisticated multi-step process to identify and spy on critics of Iran’s leadership.
Initially, the hackers familiarize themselves with the political views and personal interests of the target through extensive online research and then make contact in hopes of building trust.
The third step is attempting to arrange a video chat, for which the victims have to enter their login data. The hacker then logs into the victim’s user account and downloads their data, the content of which can potentially cause problems for contacts in Iran itself.
The intelligence agency said it has not yet identified cases of German journalists being targeted by such attacks but that anyone working on Iran-related topics should be prepared and take precautions.
