# El Machete: threat group profile

> El Machete is an espionage group with suspected backing from Unknown. Public reporting about it is still limited. This free profile brings together what is known about it, so you can judge the risk to you. It lists the other names the group goes by and links to every public report behind it.

Canonical page: https://www.precursorintelligence.com/threat-actors/el-machete
Breadcrumb: [Home](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/) > [Threat groups](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/threat-actors) > El Machete

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Attack techniques | 0 |
| Countries and victims named | 15 |
| Thought to operate from | Not known |
| Suspected backing | Unknown |
| Motive | Espionage |
| Other names | 4 |
| Public reports | 6 |

## Who is El Machete?

El Machete is an espionage group with suspected backing from Unknown. Public reporting about it is still limited.

### Also known as

Machete, machete-apt, APT-C-43, G0095

Security companies each give the same group their own name, so one group can have many.

### What public reporting says

> El Machete is one of these threats that was first publicly disclosed and named by Kaspersky here. We’ve found that this group has continued to operate successfully, predominantly in Latin America, since 2014. All attackers simply moved to new C2 infrastructure, based largely around dynamic DNS domains, in addition to making minimal changes to the malware in order to evade signature-based detection.

## Who does El Machete go after?

**Sectors:** Military, Government

**Countries and victims named:** Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, China, Belgium, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Germany, France, Colombia, Peru, Sweden, United States, Malaysia

See threats by industry: https://www.precursorintelligence.com/industries

## Public reports about El Machete

- https://attack.mitre.org/groups/G0095/
- https://securelist.com/el-machete/66108/
- https://www.cylance.com/en_us/blog/el-machete-malware-attacks-cut-through-latam.html
- https://www.cfr.org/interactive/cyber-operations/machete
- https://threatvector.cylance.com/en_us/home/el-machete-malware-attacks-cut-through-latam.html
- https://blog.360totalsecurity.com/en/apt-c-43-steals-venezuelan-military-secrets-to-provide-intelligence-support-for-the-reactionaries-hpreact-campaign/

## Frequently asked questions

### Who is El Machete?

El Machete is an espionage group with suspected backing from Unknown. Public reporting about it is still limited.

### Where is El Machete thought to be based?

Public reporting places El Machete as a group with suspected backing from Unknown. Attribution is never certain: it rests on the tools, infrastructure and targets researchers have seen.

### Who does El Machete target?

In public reporting, sectors named include military and government, and 15 countries and victims are named, including Venezuela, Russia, Cuba and China.

### How do I know if El Machete is a risk to my business?

Create an account and tell us the software you run. We match it against known flaws, including those linked to threat groups, rank each one from 0 to 100 and tell you as soon as we spot something that affects you.

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