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“Panda Shop” Takes “Smishing” to a New Level
‘Smishing’ - cybercrime involving sending deceptive SMS text messages - has just been taken to a new and dangerous level by China’s crime syndicates. Cybersecurity company, Resecurity, has discovered a devastating new smishing kit known as "Panda Shop," which comes complete with interactive manuals on how to use it.
Chinese AI offering rattles Big Tech investors
The start of this week saw roughly $1 trillion wiped off leading US tech stocks, following the launch of Deepseek, a Chinese rival to AI offerings such as Microsoft ChatGPT. What has really spooked the markets is that the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) assistant uses less data and generates lower all-round costs than its current Silicon Valley rivals. The expense of training and developing DeepSeek’s models is claimed to be only a small fraction of that required for OpenAI, putting into question the need to invest in the latest and most powerful AI accelerator chips from Nvidia. At the start of trading this week, Shares in Nvidia dropped a full10 percent and AI data analytics company Palantir lost seven percent in pre-market trading. Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Meta all also experienced a drop in their share price.
US takes on Chinese hackers
A man alleged to be behind the recent Salt Typhoon US telecoms network and US Treasury department breaches has been sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Yin Kecheng “has been a cyber actor for over a decade and is affiliated with the People’s Republic of China Ministry of State Security (MSS)”, says the Treasury Office. Yin is alleged to have had direct and associated involvement in both breaches. Two key individuals in President Donald Trump’s new administration, Elon Musk, and the president’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, have specifically cited the two devastating breaches as the prime examples of why the nation’s cybersecurity strategy is in pressingly urgent need of being overhauled.
FBI unplugs Chinese hackers
The US Justice Department and FBI have completed a law enforcement operation to delete Chinese malware from approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks. The international operation was led by French law enforcement and France-based private cybersecurity company Sekoia.io. According to court documents unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a group of hackers paid by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), known as “Mustang Panda” and “Twill Typhoon,” used a version of PlugX malware to infect, control, and steal information from victim computers. Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers have infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting US victims, European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups.
China ramps up cyber-attacks on the US
The latest US security breach attributed to systematic attempts by China to compromise US institutions and critical infrastructure has impacted the US Treasury. The intrusion is being billed as “a major cybersecurity incident”. According to a letter from the US Department of the Treasury: “The threat actor was able to override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury Departmental Office user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users… Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.”
US Puts $10M Bounty on Chinese Hacker
A Chinese national, Guan Tianfeng, has been accused of involvement in the hacking of 81,000 firewall devices all over the world in 2020. Some of the compromised devices were protecting systems running US critical infrastructure and, had the attacks gone undetected, they could have had potentially deadly consequences. The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program has since announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Guan and his alleged co-conspirators. “The defendant and his conspirators compromised tens of thousands of firewalls and then continued to hold at risk these devices, which protect computers in the United States and around the world,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen.
China’s Telecom Hack ‘Most Serious’ in US History
US Senator Mark Warner has called the Salt Typhoon hack, conducted by a group that has been linked to Chinese intelligence, “the most serious telecoms hack in our history.” In a recent interview with the NY Times, Warner also said that hackers were able to listen in on telephone calls and access text messages, emphasizing that “every major provider has been broken into.” This follows hard on the FBI releasing a joint statement with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in which they announced that “China-affiliated actors have compromised networks at multiple telecommunications companies.”
The Chinese Communist Party is watching you
Research conducted by Which, the consumer watchdog magazine, has confirmed something the smartphone industry has known for years: Chinese electronic products are routinely used to spy on citizens in countries like the US and the UK. The latest suspects, domestic air fryers, join a long list of products the Chinese are accused of having used to spy on the West, which already ranges from smart watches to automobiles. Which analyzed three air fryers sold in the UK and found that Aigostar, Xiaomi Mi Smart, and Cosori CAF-LI401S knew their customers' precise locations and demanded permission to listen in on users' conversations. The Aigostar air fryer even wanted to know the user's gender and date of birth when setting up an account. Disturbingly, both the Aigostar and Xiaomi air fryers are reported to have sent personal data to servers in China.
Chinese phisher steals top US military secrets
This week, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced criminal charges against a Chinese national, Song Wu, accused of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in an effort to obtain National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) computer software and source code. The DOJ has now revealed that the specialized software allegedly stolen by Song could be used by potentially hostile enemies to attack the US. According to the DOJ, the stolen software could be used for “industrial and military applications, such as development of advanced tactical missiles and aerodynamic design and assessment of weapons.”