Threat Group Cards: A Threat Actor Encyclopedia

APT group: Flying Kitten, Ajax Security Team

Names	Flying Kitten (CrowdStrike) Ajax Security Team (FireEye) Group 26 (Talos)
Country	Iran
Sponsor	State-sponsored
Motivation	Information theft and espionage
First seen	2010
Description	(FireEye) Members of this group have accounts on popular Iranian hacker forums such as ashiyane[.]org and shabgard[.]org, and they have engaged in website defacements under the group name “AjaxTM” since 2010. By 2014, the Ajax Security Team had transitioned from performing defacements (their last defacement was in December 2013) to malware-based espionage, using a methodology consistent with other advanced persistent threat actors in this region. (Crowdstrike) CrowdStrike Intelligence has also been tracking and reporting internally on this threat group since mid-January 2014 under the name FLYING KITTEN, and since that time has seen targeting of multiple U.S.-based defense contractors as well as political dissidents.
Observed	Sectors: Defense and dissidents. Countries: USA.
Tools used	Stealer.
Operations performed	2013	Operation “Saffron Rose” <https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/global/en/current-threats/pdfs/rpt-operation-saffron-rose.pdf>
Information	<https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/cat-scratch-fever-crowdstrike-tracks-newly-reported-iranian-actor-flying-kitten/>

Last change to this card: 14 April 2020

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