Operation Newscaster

[2] On 29 May 2014, Texas-based cyber espionage research firm iSIGHT Partners released a report, uncovering an operation it labels "Newscaster" since at-least 2011, has targeted at least 2,000 people in United States, Israel, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

[2][3] The victims who are not identified in the document due to security reasons, are senior U.S. military and diplomatic personnel, congresspeople, journalists, lobbyists, think tankers and defense contractors, including a four-star admiral.

[3] According to the iSIGHT Partners report, hackers used 14 "elaborated fake" personas claiming to work in journalism, government, and defense contracting and were active in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Blogger.

[4] Morgan Marquis-Boire, a researcher at the University of Toronto stated that the campaign "appeared to be the work of the same actors performing malware attacks on Iranian dissidents and journalists for at least two years".

[4] Franz-Stefan Gady, a senior fellow at the EastWest Institute and a founding member of the Worldwide Cybersecurity Initiative, stated that “They’re not doing this for a quick buck, to extrapolate data and extort an organization.