Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Threat Actor Silently Forwarded Sensitive Emails Matching Strategic TopicsGoogle says Chinese espionage group UNC6508 compromised REDCap environments at North American research institutions, deployed custom malware, stole credentials and covertly forwarded strategically relevant emails through abused compliance rules to support long-term intelligence collection.

China, Iran, North Korea Hackers Exploit Gemini Across Attack Life CycleState-backed hackers weaponized Google's artificial intelligence model Gemini to accelerate cyberattacks, using the productivity tool as an offensive asset for reconnaissance, social engineering and malware development. Google said it has disabled accounts and strengthened defenses.

And some are still active in the Microsoft Edge store A seven-year malicious browser extension campaign infected 4.3 million Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge users with malware, including backdoors and spyware sending people's data to servers in China. And, according to Koi researchers, five of the extensions with more than 4 million installs are still live in the Edge marketplace.…

3-Year Espionage Campaign Targeted Taiwanese FirmsChinese nation-state group APT24 targeted multiple Taiwanese companies as part of an espionage operation that went undetected for three years. The hacking group continually updated its malware infrastructure and tactics, enabling it to stay under the radar, Google Cloud said.

China-linked APT24 hackers have been using a previously undocumented malware called BadAudio in a three-year espionage campaign that recently switched to more sophisticated attack methods. [...]

Suspected Chinese hackers have used the Brickstorm malware in long-term persistence espionage operations against U.S. organizations in the technology and legal sectors. [...]

Suspected Chinese hackers have used the Brickstorm malware in long-term persistence espionage operations against U.S. organizations in the technology and legal sectors. [...]

Defrauding search with custom malware, Potato-family exploits A new China-aligned cybercrime crew named GhostRedirector has compromised at least 65 Windows servers worldwide - spotted in a June internet scan - using previously undocumented malware to juice gambling sites' rankings in Google search, according to ESET researchers.…

Google on Wednesday disclosed that the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor known as APT41 leveraged a malware called TOUGHPROGRESS that uses Google Calendar for command-and-control (C2)

The Chinese APT41 hacking group uses a new malware named 'ToughProgress' that abuses Google Calendar for command-and-control (C2) operations, hiding malicious activity behind a trusted cloud service. [...]

PLUS: Alleged Garantex admin arrested in India; Google deletes more North Korean malware Infosec In Brief United States Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has unveiled plans to form a Council on National Security that will combat foreign threats to American tech and telecommunications infrastructure.…

Juniper Networks Urges Immediate Updating and Malware Scans to Block AttackersHackers have been infecting outdated Juniper MX routers with backdoor malware as part of an apparent cyberespionage campaign that traces to a Chinese-affiliated hacking team tracked as UNC 3886, warned Google's Mandiant incident response group.

Bogus websites advertising Google Chrome have been used to distribute malicious installers for a remote access trojan called ValleyRAT

And you, China, Russia, North Korea ... Guardrails block malware generation Google says it's spotted Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean government agents using its Gemini AI for nefarious purposes, with Tehran by far the most frequent naughty user out of the four.…

Hackers exploiting the critical Ivanti Connect Secure zero-day vulnerability disclosed yesterday installed on compromised VPN appliances new malware called 'Dryhook' and 'Phasejam' that is not currently associated with any threat group. [...]

Also: Payment Card Theft Trends, Internet Archive UpdateThis week, bulk data transfers to China, credit card theft, the Internet Archive still recovering and the Change Healthcare tally is now 100M. Ukraine fought phishers, civil society against the UN cybercrime treaty, TA866 and virtual hard drives spread malware. Google verified Sir Isaac Newton.

The remote access trojan known as Gh0st RAT has been observed being delivered by an "evasive dropper" called Gh0stGambit as part of a drive-by download scheme targeting Chinese-speaking Windows users

A China-linked threat cluster leveraged security flaws in Connectwise ScreenConnect and F5 BIG-IP software to deliver custom malware capable of delivering additional backdoors on compromised Linux hosts as part of an "aggressive" campaign

Google-owned Mandiant said it identified new malware employed by a China-nexus espionage threat actor known as UNC5221 and other threat groups during post-exploitation activity targeting Ivanti Connect Secure VPN and Policy Secure devices

Google says it has suspended the app for the Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo after malware was found in versions of the app. The move comes just weeks after Chinese security researchers published an analysis suggesting the popular e-commerce app sought to seize total control over affected devices by exploiting multiple security vulnerabilities in a variety of Android-based smartphones.