Startup surge sparks spy interest. [Research Saturday]

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4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

This week, we are joined by Santiago Pontiroli, Threat Intelligence Research Lead from Acronis TRU team, discussing their work on "New year, new sector: Transparent Tribe targets India’s startup ecosystem." The Acronis Threat Research Unit uncovered a new campaign by Transparent Tribe showing the group has expanded beyond traditional government and defense targets to India’s startup ecosystem, especially cybersecurity and OSINT-focused firms. The attackers use startup-themed lures delivered via ISO files and malicious shortcuts to deploy Crimson RAT, a highly obfuscated tool capable of surveillance, data theft, and system control. Despite this shift, the campaign closely mirrors the group’s long-standing espionage tactics, suggesting startups are being targeted for their connections to government, law enforcement, and sensitive intelligence networks. The research and executive brief can be found here: New year, new sector: Transparent Tribe targets India’s startup ecosystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Cyberwire Network, powered by N2K.
0:09.7	And now a word from our sponsor, Arcova, formerly Morgan Franklin Cyber.
0:18.7	Arcova is a global cybersecurity and AI consulting firm built by practitioners who've been in the seat.
0:25.4	They work directly with enterprise teams to solve complex security challenges,
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0:38.1	Arcova delivers outcomes that endure because no one should navigate complexity alone.
0:44.5	Learn why leading global enterprises trust Arcova at www.orgovna.com. That's A-R-C-O-V-A.com. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the CyberWire Research Saturday.
1:09.6	I'm Dave Bittner and this is our weekly
1:12.3	conversation with researchers and analysts tracking down the threats and vulnerabilities,
1:17.8	solving some of the hard problems and protecting ourselves in a rapidly evolving cyberspace.
1:23.6	Thanks for joining us.
1:38.3	So what brought this particular group to our attention was that we were tracking a rat, that's a remote access tool, known as get a rat.
1:43.3	And we started with that and we found some interesting samples.
1:47.0	Then we got more interesting samples, IPs,
1:52.0	and then we started with that to develop into a full-length investigation.
1:59.0	That's Santiago Ponteiroli, threat intelligence research lead from the Akronis True Team.
2:04.6	The research we're discussing today is titled
2:06.6	New Year, New Sector.
2:08.6	Transparent Tribe targets India's startup ecosystem.
2:16.6	But usually it starts that way with just a single indicator of compromise or maybe an indicator of the group using infrastructure from the past.
2:30.3	And what was it about this latest campaign from them that stood out compared to some of the things they've done in the past?
	...

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