Threats Affecting Israel

Iran's Ministry of Intelligence has broadened its Handala brand beyond cyber operations to include physical threats and influence campaigns targeting US and Israeli interests. The expansion encompasses multiple personas: Handala Popular Resistance Front claiming physical attacks inside Israel, VIPEmployment recruiting proxies globally for espionage and sabotage, and MOISIRAN conducting surveillance operations. These entities engage in coordinated amplification across platforms, soliciting individuals to conduct attacks for financial rewards. The consolidation creates a multi-domain threat combining hacktivist activities with physical operations, espionage recruitment, and influence campaigns. This approach leverages Handala Hack Team's recognition to amplify recruitment efforts while increasing risks to law enforcement, military, intelligence personnel, and critical infrastructure across targeted regions.

MediumMalwareUnited StatesAlbaniaIsrael#hprf#void manticore#proxy recruitment

The Iranian IRGC-affiliated threat actor Nimbus Manticore launched sophisticated cyber operations during Operation Epic Fury, the US military campaign against Iran beginning February 28, 2026. The campaigns targeted organizations in aviation and software sectors across the United States, Europe, and Middle East using career-themed phishing lures. For the first time, the actor employed SEO poisoning techniques and introduced MiniFast, a previously undocumented backdoor showing signs of AI-assisted development. The operations leveraged AppDomain hijacking and abused legitimate Zoom installer execution flows for malware deployment. The actor demonstrated rapid adaptation capabilities during wartime conditions, maintaining high operational availability while expanding targeting to US-based aviation companies. Multiple campaign waves were observed from February through April 2026, with persistent infrastructure and evolving techniques.

MediumMalwareUnited StatesAustraliaSaudi Arabia+2#operation epic fury#minifast#minijunk

Unit 42 researchers identified six new remote access Trojan variants deployed by Iran-nexus APT group Screening Serpens between February and April 2026, coinciding with a regional conflict starting February 28, 2026. The group targeted entities in the U.S., Israel, UAE, and other Middle Eastern locations, primarily focusing on technology sector professionals through highly tailored social engineering using personalized recruitment lures. Two new malware families, MiniUpdate and MiniJunk V2, were discovered featuring advanced techniques including AppDomainManager hijacking that manipulates .NET application initialization to disable security mechanisms. The campaigns demonstrated increased technical capabilities and operational resilience, with each variant using dedicated C2 infrastructure hosted on Azure. The attacks leveraged DLL sideloading, scheduled tasks for persistence, and sophisticated evasion techniques to maintain long-term access for espionage purposes.

MediumMalwareUnited StatesIsraelUnited Arab Emirates#minijunk v2#screening serpens#appdomainmanager hijacking