This paper explores the challenges of cyberattack attribution, specifically
APTs, applying the case study approach for the WhisperGate cyber operation of
January 2022 executed by the Russian military intelligence service (GRU) and
targeting Ukrainian government entities. The study provides a detailed review
of the threat actor identifiers and taxonomies used by leading cybersecurity
vendors, focusing on the evolving attribution from Microsoft, ESET, and
CrowdStrike researchers. Once the attribution to Ember Bear (GRU Unit 29155) is
established through technical and intelligence reports, we use both traditional
machine learning classifiers and a large language model (ChatGPT) to analyze
the indicators of compromise (IoCs), tactics, and techniques to statistically
and semantically attribute the WhisperGate attack. Our findings reveal
overlapping indicators with the Sandworm group (GRU Unit 74455) but also strong
evidence pointing to Ember Bear, especially when the LLM is fine-tuned or
contextually augmented with additional intelligence. Thus, showing how AI/GenAI
with proper fine-tuning are capable of solving the attribution challenge.
外部データセット
IoCs, tactics and techniques IDs according to the MITRE ATT&ACK Enterprise Matrix for the following APT groups: GhostWriter, APT28, APT29, Gamaredon, InvisiMole, Sandworm, DragonFly, Turla, Wizard Spider, Ember Bear