Iran-Linked BladedFeline Hits Iraqi and Kurdish Targets with Whisper and Spearal Malware

An Iran-aligned hacking group has been attributed to a new set of cyber attacks targeting Kurdish and Iraqi government officials in early 2024. The activity is tied to a threat group ESET tracks as BladedFeline, which is assessed with medium confidence to be a sub-cluster within OilRig, a known Iranian nation-state cyber actor. It’s said to be active since September 2017, when it targeted