Following heightened worries that U.S. users' data had been accessed by TikTok engineers in China between September 2021 and January 2022, the company sought to assuage U.S. lawmakers that it's taking steps to "strengthen data security." The admission that some China-based employees can access information from U.S. users came in a letter sent to nine senators, which further … [Read more...] about TikTok Assures U.S. Lawmakers it’s Working to Safeguard User Data From Chinese Staff
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Chinese Hacker Groups Continue to Target Indian Power Grid Assets
China-linked adversaries have been attributed to an ongoing onslaught against Indian power grid organizations, one year after a concerted campaign targeting critical infrastructure in the country came to light. Most of the intrusions involved a modular backdoor named ShadowPad, according to Recorded Future's Insikt Group, a sophisticated remote access trojan which has been … [Read more...] about Chinese Hacker Groups Continue to Target Indian Power Grid Assets
FCC Adds Kaspersky and Chinese Telecom Firms to National Security Threat List
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday moved to add Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to the "Covered List" of companies that pose an "unacceptable risk to the national security" of the country. The development marks the first time a Russian entity has been added to the list that's been otherwise dominated by Chinese telecommunications firms. Also … [Read more...] about FCC Adds Kaspersky and Chinese Telecom Firms to National Security Threat List
Another Chinese Hacking Group Spotted Targeting Ukraine Amid Russia Invasion
A Chinese-speaking threat actor called Scarab has been linked to a custom backdoor dubbed HeaderTip as part of a campaign targeting Ukraine since Russia embarked on an invasion last month, making it the second China-based hacking group after Mustang Panda to capitalize on the conflict. "The malicious activity represents one of the first public examples of a Chinese threat actor … [Read more...] about Another Chinese Hacking Group Spotted Targeting Ukraine Amid Russia Invasion
Chinese ‘Mustang Panda’ Hackers Spotted Deploying New ‘Hodur’ Malware
A China-based advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Mustang Panda has been linked to an ongoing cyberespionage campaign using a previously undocumented variant of the PlugX remote access trojan on infected machines. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET dubbed the new version Hodur, owing to its resemblance to another PlugX (aka Korplug) variant called THOR that came to light in … [Read more...] about Chinese ‘Mustang Panda’ Hackers Spotted Deploying New ‘Hodur’ Malware
Chinese Experts Uncover Details of Equation Group’s Bvp47 Covert Hacking Tool
Researchers from China's Pangu Lab have disclosed details of a "top-tier" backdoor put to use by the Equation Group, an advanced persistent threat (APT) with alleged ties to the cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Dubbed "Bvp47" owing to numerous references to the string "Bvp" and the numerical value "0x47" used in the … [Read more...] about Chinese Experts Uncover Details of Equation Group’s Bvp47 Covert Hacking Tool
Researchers Link ShadowPad Malware Attacks to Chinese Ministry and PLA
Cybersecurity researchers have detailed the inner workings of ShadowPad, a sophisticated and modular backdoor that has been adopted by a growing number of Chinese threat groups in recent years, while also linking it to the country's civilian and military intelligence agencies. "ShadowPad is decrypted in memory using a custom decryption algorithm," researchers from Secureworks … [Read more...] about Researchers Link ShadowPad Malware Attacks to Chinese Ministry and PLA
Chinese Hackers Spotted Using New UEFI Firmware Implant in Targeted Attacks
A previously undocumented firmware implant deployed to maintain stealthy persistence as part of a targeted espionage campaign has been linked to the Chinese-speaking Winnti advanced persistent threat group (APT41). Kaspersky, which codenamed the rootkit MoonBounce, characterized the malware as the "most advanced UEFI firmware implant discovered in the wild to date," adding "the … [Read more...] about Chinese Hackers Spotted Using New UEFI Firmware Implant in Targeted Attacks
Chinese APT Hackers Used Log4Shell Exploit to Target Academic Institution
A never-before-seen China-based targeted intrusion adversary dubbed Aquatic Panda has been observed leveraging critical flaws in the Apache Log4j logging library as an access vector to perform various post-exploitation operations, including reconnaissance and credential harvesting on targeted systems. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the infiltration, which was ultimately … [Read more...] about Chinese APT Hackers Used Log4Shell Exploit to Target Academic Institution
Chinese Hackers Used a New Rootkit to Spy on Targeted Windows 10 Users
A formerly unknown Chinese-speaking threat actor has been linked to a long-standing evasive operation aimed at South East Asian targets as far back as July 2020 to deploy a kernel-mode rootkit on compromised Windows systems. Attacks mounted by the hacking group, dubbed GhostEmperor by Kaspersky, are also said to have used a "sophisticated multi-stage malware framework" that … [Read more...] about Chinese Hackers Used a New Rootkit to Spy on Targeted Windows 10 Users