China-Linked Hackers Use ARTEX AI Agents in ConnectWise Supply Chain Attack

Microsoft on Wednesday disclosed that a China state-aligned actor dubbed Storm-0940 was behind the recent supply chain compromise of the ConnectWise Cloud Backup application. During the incident, Storm-0940 used ARTEX, a Go-based agentic AI penetration testing framework that was made closed-sourc...

AI-driven, large-scale nation-state campaign using ARTEX enables supply chain compromise

In this article 1. What’s happening 2. What is ARTEX? 3. Mitigation and protection guidance 4. References 5. Learn more As early as September 2026, Storm-0940, a China-state aligned actor, used the agentic AI penetration testing framework ARTEX to automate attacks targeting hundreds of...

Microsoft Warns of Chinese Botnet Exploiting Router Flaws for Credential Theft

Microsoft has revealed that a Chinese threat actor it tracks as Storm-0940 is leveraging a botnet called Quad7 to orchestrate highly evasive password spray attacks. The tech giant has given the botnet the name CovertNetwork-1658, stating the password spray operations are used to steal credentials...