Carmine Tsunami
Aliases: DEV-0196, QuaDream
- Origin
- IL
- Primary motivation
- espionage
- Sophistication
- advanced
- Resource level
- organization
- Actor type
- nation-state
- Profile updated
- 2026-07-07 12:12:36
Targeted industries: education-and-nonprofits government-and-public-sector media-and-entertainment
Context
Carmine Tsunami is a threat actor linked to an Israel-based private sector offensive actor called QuaDream. QuaDream sells a platform called REIGN to governments for law enforcement purposes, which includes exploits, malware, and infrastructure for data exfiltration from mobile devices. Carmine Tsunami is associated with the iOS malware called KingsPawn and has targeted civil society victims, including journalists, political opposition figures, and NGO workers, in various regions. They utilize domain registrars and inexpensive cloud hosting providers, often using single domains per IP address and deploying free Let's Encrypt SSL certificates.
Reports & references
- Microsoft — Dev 0196 Quadreams Kingspawn Malware Used To Target Civil Society In Europe North America The Middle East And Southeast Asia (report)
- citizenlab.ca — Spyware Vendor Quadream Exploits Victims Customers (report)
- raw.githubusercontent.com — Microsoftmapping (report)
- Microsoft — Microsoft Threat Actor Naming (report)