Chinese spear-phishing campaign targets NASA employees

NASA had its employees and research collaborators reported by its Office of Inspector General to have been subjected to a Chinesespear-phishing campaignaimed at procuring the agency’s sensitive data,The Hacker Newsreports.Involved in the campaign was Chinese national Song Wu, who masqueraded as a U.S. researcher to dupe NASA workers into providing access to proprietary software, according to the OIG. Wu, an engineer at the Chinese state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, had already been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department over his involvement in a sweeping phishing operation aimed at U.S. engineers, researchers, and professors between January 2017 and December 2021.”As phishing campaigns continue to become more sophisticated, there are common clues that can betray scammers and expose their export fraud schemes… Export control scammers also often suggest unusual payment methods (such as suspicious wire transfers); abruptly change the terms or source of payment; and use unconventional transfer methods to mask their identity and evade shipping restrictions,” said the OIG.