Hackers tied to the Iranian government have been targeting individuals specializing in Middle Eastern affairs, nuclear security, and genome research as part of a new social engineering campaign designed to hunt for sensitive information.
Enterprise security firm Proofpoint attributed the targeted attacks to a threat actor named TA453, which broadly overlaps with cyber activities monitored under the monikers APT42, Charming Kitten, and Phosphorus.
It all starts with a phishing email impersonating legitimate individuals at Western foreign policy research organizations that’s ultimately designed to gather intelligence on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The sock puppet accounts include people from Pew Research Center, the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FRPI), the U.K.’s Chatham House, and the scientific journal Nature. The technique is said to have been deployed in mid-June 2022.
However, what differentiates this from other phishing attacks is the use of a tactic Proofpoint calls Multi-Persona Impersonation (MPI), wherein the threat actor employs not one but several actor-controlled personas in the same email conversation to bolster the chances of success.
The idea is to “leverage the psychology principle of social proof” and increase the authenticity of the threat actor’s correspondence so as to make the target buy into the scheme, a tactic that demonstrates the adversary’s continued ability to step up its game.
“This is an intriguing technique because it requires more resources to be used per target – potentially burning more personas – and a coordinated approach among the various personalities in use by TA453,” Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of threat research and detection at Proofpoint, said in a statement.
Once the initial email elicits a response from the target, the persona then sends a follow-up message containing a malicious OneDrive link that downloads a Microsoft Office document, one of which purportedly alludes to a clash between Russia and the U.S.
This document subsequently uses a technique called remote template injection to download Korg, a template consisting of three macros that are capable of gathering usernames, a list of running processes, and the victims’ public IP addresses.
Besides the exfiltration of the beaconing information, no other post-exploitation actions have been observed. The “abnormal” lack of code execution and command-and-control behavior has led to an assessment that the compromised users may be subjected to further attacks based on the installed software.
This is not the first time the threat actor has undertaken impersonation campaigns. In July 2021, Proofpoint revealed a phishing operation dubbed SpoofedScholars that targeted individuals focused on Middle East affairs in the U.S. and the U.K. under the guise of scholars with the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
Then in July 2022, the cybersecurity company uncovered attempts on the part of TA453 to masquerade as journalists to lure academics and policy experts into clicking on malicious links that redirect the targets to credential harvesting domains.
The latest disclosure comes amid a flurry of Iranian-linked cyber activity. Last week, Microsoft took the wraps off a string of ransomware attacks mounted by a Phosphorus subgroup dubbed DEV-0270 using living-off-the-land binaries such as BitLocker.
Additionally, cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which is now officially part of Google Cloud, detailed the activities of an Iranian espionage actor codenamed APT42 that has been linked to over 30 operations since 2015.
To top it all, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and its Minister of Intelligence, Esmaeil Khatib, in response to “cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies.”
Albania, which has severed diplomatic relations with Iran after blaming it for a series of cyber offensives since July, pointed fingers at the “same aggressors” over the weekend for conducting another attack on a government system used to track border crossings.
“State-aligned threat actors are some of the best at crafting well thought-out social engineering campaigns to reach their intended victims,” DeGrippo said.
“Researchers involved in international security, particularly those specializing in Middle Eastern studies or nuclear security, should maintain a heightened sense of awareness when receiving unsolicited emails.”
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While every employee brings their own special talents and perspectives to their job roles, things can get disorganized when everyone is taking a different approach to completing your company’s core business processes. In order to produce more consistent results and streamline your internal operations, it can be beneficial to create standard operating procedures for everyone to follow.
Implementing and documenting standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a great way to make sure that all staff members are completing their tasks in the correct manner. SOPs are an excellent tool for small business owners looking to take their business process management to the next level. However, writing them can be an intimidating task. To help you visualize what an SOP should look like and include, we’ve created five simple SOP examples.
A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a detailed document with step-by-step instructions on how to properly complete a task. The purpose of an SOP document is to ensure that all workflows are completed in a consistent manner to improve efficiency, safety, compliance, profitability, and product or service quality. SOPs help save time and make sure that tasks are completed in a uniform manner.
You can create SOPs for a wide range of business processes. More complex processes can even be broken up into multiple SOPs to detail different tasks within a larger process. The goal is to make your documentation thorough enough that any employee that follows it will end up completing the task in the same manner with a consistent end result. However, you also want them to be concise enough that they aren’t too overwhelming to follow — so don’t be afraid to break them up into smaller tasks and procedures.
SOP formats can vary. An SOP document can be a simple set of work instructions or a more intricate document with hierarchical flowcharts. If the work that your employees do is highly technical or involves special safety or compliance concerns, you may need to craft more in-depth SOPs in order to properly convey the appropriate procedures.
The key is to provide a clear explanation of the intended use of the SOP, what stakeholders are involved in the business process being documented, and a thorough yet easy-to-follow set of directions for completing each specific task. If you make heavy use of acronyms or industry jargon it can also help to define some of the key terms used in each process.
Take a look at the following examples to see what a basic SOP should look like. You can use these as a template for your own SOPs or create your own SOP template.
The purpose of this standard operating procedure is to define the new employee onboarding process and the responsibilities of the HR staff and department leads in orienting new hires to the organization.
This Standard Operating Procedure details all of the steps that must be taken to onboard all new hires to the company.
It’s the responsibility of the HR Manager to ensure that all onboarding paperwork is complete in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws and that new hire orientation is conducted. It is the responsibility of each department lead to provide department-specific training and onboarding to new employees. The HR department will own this SOP and update it as needed.
New hire refers to any new employees beginning employment at the company. This includes rehires who were previously employed at the company but terminated their employment for a period of time.
HR is used as an abbreviation for human resources throughout this document.
Schedule an HR orientation with the new employee to occur on the first day of their employment.
Coordinate with department manager to schedule department-specific onboarding meetings and review additional training needs.
Prepare all necessary logins and documents for the new hire.
Conduct the HR orientation to orient the new employee with the timekeeping and payroll software, necessary paperwork, and internal resources.
Provide each new hire with all necessary onboarding documents including i9 forms, tax forms, and the employee handbook acknowledgment form.
Check the completed onboarding paperwork for accuracy and completion.
Follow up with the new employee at the end of their first week to offer assistance as needed.
W4 Form
I9 Form
Direct Deposit Form
Employee Handbook and Acknowledgement Form
The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure is to establish a process for posting a job opening for the company on the company’s website as well as the major job search platforms.
This Standard Operating Procedure details the process that Recruiters and HR staff should follow when creating and posting a job opening for the company.
The HR and Recruiting teams are responsible for the creation of each job post. Recruiters are responsible for posting each role and reviewing submissions to the posts. Department leads and management staff are responsible for working with HR and Recruiting to develop thorough job descriptions that accurately reflect the needs of the department.
ATS is used as an abbreviation for applicant tracking system throughout this document.
HR is used as an abbreviation for human resources throughout this document.
Verify with leadership that the job opening is approved to be filled.
Coordinate with the department manager to craft a job description that accurately reflects the duties of the role and necessary qualifications.
Draft the job description and submit it for approval to the HR Director
Once approved, input the job title, description, and salary range into the ATS.
Select to distribute the job posting to Indeed, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and other sites relevant to the role.
Verify that the posting is live on the selected sites.
Encourage internal staff to share the opening with their networks.
ATS user guide
Company job description template
The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure is to guide employees in accurately creating new customer records in the company’s CRM system in order to maintain up-to-date records and streamline future communications with the customer.
This Standard Operating Procedure details all of the steps that must be taken by sales staff to enter new customer accounts into the company’s CRM system.
Each sales team member is responsible for entering new customers or prospective customers that they make contact with into the CRM. The Sales Manager is responsible for overseeing this process and ensuring that all customer records are complete.
CRM is used as an abbreviation for customer relationship management throughout this document.
Open the customer relationship management system.
Select Add Customer in the upper-righthand corner.
Fill in all of the required fields and any optional fields that you have data for.
Double-check the spelling of the customer’s name and email address.
Save the customer record and add any additional notes from your interactions with the customer into the CRM.
CRM help documents and user guide
The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure is to set forth the proper process for ordering and restocking office supplies.
This Standard Operating Procedure details the steps necessary for inventorying office needs, ordering supplies, and documenting spending.
The Office Manager is responsible for inventorying and ordering supplies for the office and for the maintenance of this SOP document. The finance department is responsible for approving high-value office supply purchases and reconciling expense purchases.
N/A
Take Inventory of current supply levels and document which supplies need to be reordered.
Review special supply requests from department leads and team members.
Obtain approval from finance for any special requests or office needs with a value over $100.
Order the necessary supplies from approved vendor websites.
Follow the expense policy to document any charges put on a company card.
Expense policy
The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure is to detail the step-by-step procedures that must be taken to properly run payroll each pay period to ensure accurate and compliant payments are disbursed on the set pay dates for the year.
This Standard Operating Procedure details all of the steps that must be taken by the payroll department to process payroll each pay period.
The payroll department is responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of all pay disbursements and for the upkeep of this SOP.
Payroll refers to the payment process for all W2 employees. A separate SOP is in place for contract staff.
Review submitted timesheets and follow up with any missing timesheets.
Review overtime, bonuses, reimbursements, or other special payments.
Verify any new hire information or employee changes have been updated in the system.
Run payroll in the payroll system.
Review payroll reports and data.
Send checks to be printed and distributed or submitted for direct deposit.
Annual pay schedule
Annual company holiday calendar
Now that you’ve seen five SOP examples, start building your own library of standard operating procedure documents. It can help to list out your top business processes as a starting point and then gradually build up your collection of SOPs. By the end of this process, you will have a great procedure manual in place that employees can reference when completing all of their major tasks. It can help to store these in a wiki or a cloud storage app so that they are easy to find and refer back to.
If you need more help in writing SOPs, take a look at our SOP checklist to look at all of the different fields or pieces of information that you can include in your own standard operating procedure templates. We also have a guide on SOP development to help you navigate the process of creating high-quality SOP docs.
 
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Nowadays, every business needs a website, an ecommerce store, or a blog. To do this, you need to manage and control your site’s content, design, and functionality on a regular basis. However, doing this manually requires hardcore coding knowledge and technical expertise, for which not all SMBs have the budget or the staff.
Content management software can help you keep your site organized and up to date by allowing you to structure, plan, and publish fresh content dynamically without touching any underlying code.
Such platforms often integrate well with customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, marketing software, and social media platforms to capture leads and organize them, publish posts, and drive more conversions.
We have created this buyers guide to help you understand content management software with all the essential information you need to choose the right tool.
Here’s what we’ll cover:

Content management software are solutions used to author, organize, and store digital content for a business. It allows users to collaborate in the creation, editing, and production of web pages and blog posts without the need for specialized technical knowledge, such as coding.
The system can also help store all of your web content in one place, assist in creating dynamic web pages, and allow for quick and easy business updates to be made, making a website as effective and secure as possible.
There are two different types of content management software solutions, which are as follows:
Content publishing window in WordPress Software (Source)

Most content management software tools have the following features in common:

Before purchasing a content management system, you should determine which buyer category you’re in so you can choose the right tool. The majority of buyers fall into the following categories:



Here’s a market trend to keep in mind when selecting a CMS tool for your business:
Note: The application selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and is not intended as an endorsement or recommendation. It has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.
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Funding will add new features including payments and lead acquisition, increase support and grow team
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Roofr, the all-in-one roofing software that allows roofers to offer estimates instantly, measure roofs via aerial imagery, and create visually stunning proposals, has announced the completion of a $12 million Series A funding round. This funding round included past participants Bullpen Capital and Crosslink Capital, along with new investors K5 Global, Vertical Venture Partners, Interplay, Ace & Co, and 12BF. This new $12 million investment will bring the total funding raised to $19 million.
The latest funding round will help Roofr build a robust end-to-end experience for roofers globally, by providing professionals with a simple way to manage their projects and speed up their ability to help their customers. With roofers’ biggest challenges in mind, Roofr intends to add features including payments and lead acquisition, solidify new partnerships for better integrations, increase support hours, and double their team.
“Roofing is an industry that prides itself on craftsmanship and precision. We want to ensure that roofing contractors have the most advanced software to measure, estimate and build winning project proposals, helping them to save time, grow their profits, and scale fast,” said Richard Nelson, CEO of Roofr. “As a third-generation roofer, I understand the pain industry professionals go through on a day-to-day basis running their business. From having to drive out to a home to get measurements in person, to creating pen and paper proposals. I started Roofr to solve these problems and build software for roofers, by roofers. ”
Since Roofr announced its seed funding in 2021, they’ve launched new features such as proposals and an instant estimator which allows roofers to provide roofing estimates in seconds. Motivated by their customers’ feedback, Roofr has measured over 1.5 million roofs and saved roofers millions of dollars through streamlining the sales process. “Roofr has a ton of amazing features,” said Chris Schoen, CEO of Schoen Roofing. “Proposals have helped me close more jobs by providing very clean looking quotes for my customers.”

Along with growing its team and suite of features, Roofr is focusing on strategic partnerships and integrations that will significantly benefit its users. Roofr recently announced its partnership with CompanyCam, which allows roofers the ability to connect images and notes from in-person site visits with digital sales solutions.
“We’re looking forward to helping Roofr continue to grow market share in the roofing contractor industry with this new round of funding,” said Brad Corona, Managing Director of Vertical Venture Partners. “We always look to partner with entrepreneurs who understand their industry vertical deeply, and Roofr is the epitome of that thesis.”
To learn more about Roofr watch the product overview here, and meet the team here.
Built by roofers for roofers, Roofr is a SaaS platform that’s an all-in-one sales toolbox for roofing contractors. The company was founded by a third-generation roofer with a vision to build the most trusted roofing platform in the world. Roofr gives roofing contractors everything they need to save time, money and close more business. They offer instant estimating tools that qualify leads in seconds, aerial images to generate highly accurate roof measurement reports and proposal software that customers can e-sign with a click.
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