# White Bear: threat group profile

> White Bear is an espionage group thought to operate from Russia, with suspected state backing. 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.

Canonical page: https://www.precursorintelligence.com/threat-actors/white-bear
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## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Attack techniques | 0 |
| Countries and victims named | 4 |
| Thought to operate from | Russia |
| Suspected backing | Russia |
| Motive | Espionage |
| Other names | 1 |
| Public reports | 2 |

## Who is White Bear?

White Bear is an espionage group thought to operate from Russia, with suspected state backing. Public reporting about it is still limited.

### Also known as

Skipper Turla

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

### What public reporting says

> As a part of our Kaspersky APT Intelligence Reporting subscription, customers received an update in mid-February 2017 on some interesting APT activity that we called WhiteBear. Much of the contents of that report are reproduced here. WhiteBear is a parallel project or second stage of the Skipper Turla cluster of activity documented in another private intelligence report “Skipper Turla – the White Atlas framework” from mid-2016. Like previous Turla activity, WhiteBear leverages compromised websites and hijacked satellite connections for command and control (C2) infrastructure. As a matter of fact, WhiteBear infrastructure has overlap with other Turla campaigns, like those deploying Kopiluwak, as documented in “KopiLuwak – A New JavaScript Payload from Turla” in December 2016. WhiteBear infected systems maintained a dropper (which was typically signed) as well as a complex malicious platform which was always preceded by WhiteAtlas module deployment attempts. However, despite the similarities to previous Turla campaigns, we believe that WhiteBear is a distinct project with a separate focus. We note that this observation of delineated target focus, tooling, and project context is an interesting one that also can be repeated across broadly labeled Turla and Sofacy activity. From February to September 2016, WhiteBear activity was narrowly focused on embassies and consular operations around the world. All of these early WhiteBear targets were related to embassies and diplomatic/foreign affair organizations. Continued WhiteBear activity later shifted to include defense-related organizations into June 2017. When compared to WhiteAtlas infections, WhiteBear deployments are relatively rare and represent a departure from the broader Skipper Turla target set. Additionally, a comparison of the WhiteAtlas framework to WhiteBear components indicates that the malware is the product of separate development efforts. WhiteBear infections appear to be preceded by a condensed spearphishing dropper, lack Firefox extension installer payloads, and contain several new components signed with a new code signing digital certificate, unlike WhiteAtlas incidents and modules.

## Who does White Bear go after?

**Sectors:** Government, Private sector

**Countries and victims named:** United States, South Korea, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan

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

## Public reports about White Bear

- https://securelist.com/introducing-whitebear/81638/
- https://www.cfr.org/interactive/cyber-operations/whitebear

## Frequently asked questions

### Who is White Bear?

White Bear is an espionage group thought to operate from Russia, with suspected state backing. Public reporting about it is still limited.

### Where is White Bear thought to be based?

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

### Who does White Bear target?

In public reporting, sectors named include government and private sector, and 4 countries and victims are named, including United States, South Korea, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

### How do I know if White Bear 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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