Czech Republic Blames China-Linked APT31 Hackers for 2022 Cyberattack

The Czech Republic on Wednesday formally accused a threat actor associated with the People's Republic of China PRC of targeting its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a public statement, the government said it identified China as the culprit behind a malicious campaign targeting one of the...

FBI Seeks Public Help to Identify Chinese Hackers Behind Global Cyber Intrusions

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has sought assistance from the public in connection with an investigation involving the breach of edge devices and computer networks belonging to companies and government entities. "An Advanced Persistent Threat group allegedly created and deployed...

EastWind campaign: new CloudSorcerer attacks on government organizations in Russia

In late July 2024, we detected a series of ongoing targeted cyberattacks on dozens of computers at Russian government organizations and IT companies. The threat actors infected devices using phishing emails with malicious shortcut attachments. These shortcuts were used to deliver malware that...

EastWind Attack Deploys PlugY and GrewApacha Backdoors Using Booby-Trapped LNK Files

The Russian government and IT organizations are the target of a new campaign that delivers a number of backdoors and trojans as part of a spear-phishing campaign codenamed EastWind. The attack chains are characterized by the use of RAR archive attachments containing a Windows shortcut LNK file...

Finland Blames Chinese Hacking Group APT31 for Parliament Cyber Attack

The Police of Finland aka Poliisi has formally accused a Chinese nation-state actor tracked as APT31 for orchestrating a cyber attack targeting the country's Parliament in 2020. The intrusion, per the authorities, is said to have occurred between fall 2020 and early 2021. The agency described the...

U.S. Charges 7 Chinese Nationals in Major 14-Year Cyber Espionage Operation

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Monday unsealed indictments against seven Chinese nationals for their involvement in a hacking group that targeted U.S. and foreign critics, journalists, businesses, and political officials for about 14 years. The defendants include Ni Gaobin 倪高彬, Weng Ming 翁...

Chinese Hackers Charged in Decade-Long Global Spying Rampage

US and UK officials hit Chinese hacking group APT31 with sanctions and criminal charges after they targeted thousands of businesses, politicians, and critics of China...

Researchers Shed Light on APT31's Advanced Backdoors and Data Exfiltration Tactics

The Chinese threat actor known as APT31 aka Bronze Vinewood, Judgement Panda, or Violet Typhoon has been linked to a set of advanced backdoors that are capable of exfiltrating harvested sensitive information to Dropbox. The malware is part of a broader collection of more than 15 implants that hav...

Common TTPs of attacks against industrial organizations

In 2022 we investigated a series of attacks against industrial organizations in Eastern Europe. In the campaigns, the attackers aimed to establish a permanent channel for data exfiltration, including data stored on air-gapped systems. Based on similarities found between these campaigns and...

China's APT31 Suspected in Attacks on Air-Gapped Systems in Eastern Europe

A nation-state actor with links to China is suspected of being behind a series of attacks against industrial organizations in Eastern Europe that took place last year to siphon data stored on air-gapped systems. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky attributed the intrusions with medium to high...

SAS 2021: Operation Software Concepts

During the Operation Software Concepts: A Beautiful Envelope for Wrapping Weapon talk on SAS-at-Home 2021, Rintaro Koike, Shogo Hayashi and Ryuichi Tanabe from NTT Security Japan will cover a new APT campaign named Operation Software Concepts. They will share details about this multi-stage attack...

New Chinese Spyware Being Used in Widespread Cyber Espionage Attacks

A threat actor presumed to be of Chinese origin has been linked to a series of 10 attacks targeting Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Canada, and the U.S. from January to July 2021 that involve the deployment of a remote access trojan RAT on infected systems, according to new research. The intrusions ha...

US and Global Allies Accuse China of Massive Microsoft Exchange Attack

The U.S. government and its key allies, including the European Union, the U.K., and NATO, formally attributed the massive cyberattack against Microsoft Exchange email servers to state-sponsored hacking crews working affiliated with the People's Republic of China's Ministry of State Security MSS. ...

Chinese Hackers Stole an NSA Windows Exploit in 2014

Check Point has evidence that probably government affiliated Chinese hackers stole and cloned an NSA Windows hacking tool years before probably government affiliated Russian hackers stole and then published the same tool. Heres the timeline: The timeline basically seems to be, according to Check...

Chinese Hackers Hijacked NSA-Linked Hacking Tool: Report

New research has found evidence that a Chinese-affiliated threat group APT31 has hijacked a hacking tool previously used by the Equation Group which has been tied to the U.S. National Security Agency, or NSA. The tool in question, dubbed “Jian,” is used to exploit a local privilege-escalation LPE...

Chinese Hackers Had Access to a U.S. Hacking Tool Years Before It Was Leaked Online

On August 13, 2016, a hacking unit calling itself "The Shadow Brokers" announced that it had stolen malware tools and exploits used by the Equation Group, a sophisticated threat actor believed to be affiliated to the Tailored Access Operations TAO unit of the U.S. National Security Agency NSA...