Kaspersky highlights key industries targeted by APT groups across the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa
St John’ s College Oxford enhances cybersecurity with Managed Vulnerability Management programme from ANSecurity
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Kaspersky highlights key industries targeted by APT groups across the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa
K aspersky has revealed that the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa are a focus for 25 Advanced Persistent Threat( APT) groups tracked since early 2024.
The findings show that these groups target financial services, critical infrastructure, defence and government entities, while also extending their reach into commercial and emerging industries.
Kaspersky researchers noted that initial access by the majority of APTs targeting the region is often gained through socially engineered spear-phishing campaigns. Once inside, these threat actors prioritise stealth, frequently masquerading as legitimate services or routine scheduled tasks.
The research shows a diverse threat landscape, with both established and emerging groups active across the region. For example, the Griffith group consistently targets the financial services industry across multiple countries, while SideWinder demonstrates a wide geographic scope and industry reach, mainly focusing on espionage. Additionally, Kaspersky experts have observed campaigns from the APT Evasive Panda and Cloud Atlas, both active in Türkiye.
“ When we analyse APT activities in the region, what stands out is how quickly their methods adapt,” said Maher Yamout, Lead Security Researcher at Kaspersky.“ We’ re seeing attackers experiment with new exploits, expand into uncommon sectors and, in some cases, test the waters in countries that were previously less affected. It’ s a clear reminder that no industry or organisation is off the radar for advanced attackers.”
Maher Yamout, Lead Security Researcher at Kaspersky
St John’ s College Oxford enhances cybersecurity with Managed Vulnerability Management programme from ANSecurity
t John’ s College, one of the historic colleges of the University of Oxford,
S has significantly strengthened its cybersecurity posture with the implementation of a Managed Vulnerability Management( MVM) programme delivered by long-term partner ANSecurity.
Founded in 1555, St John’ s supports a diverse community of more than 600 students, a large number of staff and over 100 academic fellows across multiple sites in Oxford. With a small in-house IT team and growing cyberthreats, the college needed a proactive solution to improve visibility, reduce risks and free up internal resources. validation and monthly strategic reviews with ANSecurity consultants.
Matt Jennings, IT Manager at St John’ s College Oxford, said:“ This service has freed up internal resources and helped us stop playing‘ whack-amole’ with vulnerabilities. We now know what to focus on, and how to do it. The support from
ANSecurity has been invaluable in helping us become more strategic and effective.”
The programme has also introduced a proactive cycle of risk management, with daily monitoring of public-facing systems, monthly vulnerability summaries and overnight verification of patch updates.
After more than 13 years of collaboration, the college turned to ANSecurity to design and deploy an MVM service built on Tenable Nessus. The service includes daily credentialed scans, automated vulnerability notifications, remediation
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