Earlier this month, the Office of Personnel Management reported that 21.5 million Americans had their social security numbers and other sensitive data stolen in the second breach to OPM’s background check database. In the wake of this massive breach, OPM Director Katherine Archuleta has resigned. It’s believed that the Sakula Remote Access Trojan (RAT) was associated with this attack.
RATs are very common and designed to provide the attacker with complete control over the victim’s system. They can be used to steal sensitive information, to spy on victims, and remotely control infected computers. RAT infections are typically carried out via spear phishing and social engineering attacks. Most are hidden inside heavily packed binaries that are dropped in the later stages of the malware’s payload execution.
