Iranian hackers ‘tickle’ targets in US, UAE with custom tool, Microsoft says

Microsoft researchers say Iran-linked APT Peach Sandstorm (also tracked as APT33/Refined Kitten) deployed a bespoke backdoor named Tickler and used fraudulent Azure subscriptions and password-spray attacks to target organizations across the satellite, oil & gas, communications, and government sectors in the United States and the United Arab Emirates between April and July; Microsoft assesses the group operates on behalf of the IRGC and has successfully compromised multiple organizations to facilitate intelligence collection.