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Longhorn threat group

Longhorn is an espionage group thought to operate from United States, with suspected state backing. Public reporting links it to attacks on private sector and government organisations, with 1 country or victim named. This free profile brings together what is known about it, so you can judge the risk to you.

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Attack techniques
0
Countries and victims named
1
Thought to operate from
United States
Suspected backing
United States
Motive
Espionage
Other names
4
Built from public reporting, with every source listed below.
Overview

Who is Longhorn?

Longhorn has 4 other names in security research. Below is what published reporting says about it, with a link to every report so you can check the detail yourself.

Also known as

Lambertsthe LambertsAPT-C-39PLATINUM TERMINAL

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

What public reporting says

Longhorn has been active since at least 2011. It has used a range of back door Trojans in addition to zero-day vulnerabilities to compromise its targets. Longhorn has infiltrated governments and internationally operating organizations, in addition to targets in the financial, telecoms, energy, aerospace, information technology, education, and natural resources sectors. All of the organizations targeted would be of interest to a nation-state attacker. Longhorn has infected 40 targets in at least 16 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. On one occasion a computer in the United States was compromised but, following infection, an uninstaller was launched within hours, which may indicate this victim was infected unintentionally. According to cfr, this threat actor compromises governments, international organizations, academic institutions, and financial, telecommunications, energy, aerospace, information technology, and natural resource industries for espionage purposes. Some of the tools used by this threat actor were released by Wikileaks under the name "Vault 7."

Public reports about Longhorn (5)

Targets

Who does Longhorn go after?

The sectors and places named in public reporting about this group. If yours is on the list, it is worth knowing how they work and which flaws they use.

Sectors (2)

Private sectorGovernment
See threats by industry →

Countries and victims named (1)

  1. 01Global
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FAQ

Questions about Longhorn

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Longhorn is an espionage group thought to operate from United States, with suspected state backing. Public reporting links it to attacks on private sector and government organisations, with 1 country or victim named.

Public reporting places Longhorn as operating from United States, with suspected state backing. Attribution is never certain: it rests on the tools, infrastructure and targets researchers have seen.

In public reporting, sectors named include private sector and government, and 1 countries and victims are named, including Global.

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