Iranian hackers join Chinese in the use of fake social media profiles:

In December, reports were published that the German intelligence services have uncovered use of fake social media profiles by Chinese intelligence. However, it is not just the Chinese that use this type of deception; Clearsky have reported that Iranian cyber criminals are doing the same. 

The report provides evidence demonstrating that the Iranian cyber group Charming Kitten have created LinkedIn company pages and profiles for a fake news-agency called 'British News', in an attempt to authenticate their British News website, which has been set up to infect targeted visitors. The hacking group also used false Facebook and Twitter profiles to 'verify' fake personas when emailing targets. These more innovative methods were being used alongside more 'well-known' techniques, such as spear phishing.